''Chaceon fenneri'', commonly known as the golden crab or golden deepsea crab, is one of several species of

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all th ...

harvested for food by humans. It was formerly called ''Geryon fenneri''. Like the blue crab, its

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

comes from the color of its shell; it is usually cream to tan in color. Both parts of the

binomen In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Chaceon fenneri'' commemorate Fenner A. Chace, Jr. It is found on the ocean floor at depths of in the tropical west Atlantic, ranging from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

to Brazil.Carvalho, Filho and Lotufo (2009). ''Note on the fisheries and biology of the golden crab (Chaceon fenneri) off the northern coast of Brazil.'' Lat. Am. J. Aquat. Res., 37(3): 571-576. It cannot swim. The

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the unde ...

of this large crab measures up to , making the entire animal similar in size to a dinner plate. Its diet includes

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning " ...

(bottom-dwelling) organisms like

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s and

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

References

External links

South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
Portunoidea Edible crustaceans Commercial crustaceans Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1984 {{crab-stub