Photo credit: Wikipedia

Why wouldn’t the crab share his toys? Because he was shellfish.

But moving past the dad jokes, crabs are super cool critters! How much to do you know about them?

Let’s dive in to their fascinating lives with this list of facts about the cutest shellfish we know!

There are more than 4,500 species of crabs. Most species live in coastal areas of salty, fresh or brackish water. Crabs are super old! They showed up during the Jurassic period, 200 million years ago. The Pea Crab is the smallest known species. It measures between 0.27 and 0.47 inches long. The Japanese Spider Crab is the biggest, measuring about 12 feet between its claws! Crabs have an “exoskeleton” made of chitin. It protects their soft tissue. Crabs walk and swim sideways. Crabs eat both meat and plants, making them omnivores. Pregnancy in female crabs only last one or two weeks. Then they lay between 1,000 and 2,000 eggs! Groups of crabs living together are known as “casts.” The average lifespan of a crab is 3 to 4 years.

Crabs are important characters in many shows and movies, too! For starters, there’s Mr. Krabs, owner of the Krusty Krab on Spongebob.

Photo credit: Nickelodeon

And who could forget about Sebastian in The Little Mermaid?!

Photo credit: Disney

Although, Sebastian is technically supposed to be a lobster.

So even if crabs aren’t keen on sharing their toys, we think they’re pretty awesome. Learn more about crabs from softschools.com.