How Do Crabs Breathe?

Crabs, like many sea-dwelling creatures, have gills that they use to extract oxygen from the water in order to breathe. But you’ve probably seen plenty of crabs on land too. So how does a gilled creature breathe on land?

A Quick Dip

Surprisingly, all crabs have to do is keep their gills moist. This allows oxygen in the air to diffuse into the moisture and into the gills, allowing the crab to breathe. All it has to do is take a quick dip in the surf to keep its gills wet, and a crab can crawl around to its heart’s content onshore. Their gills are also surrounded by articulating plates that seal them in and prevent them from drying out. If they want to venture further away from the surf, crabs also like to find cool, dark, moist hiding places that hide them from predators and keep them breathing.

Land Crabs

Land crabs are even better than blue crabs at breathing onshore. They can drink water from the dew and ground, extract it from food, and from water vapor in the air. They store water in the bladder, blood, and various pockets in their bodies to use to keep their gills moist for extended periods of time.

 

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Source

http://www.bluecrab.info/faq.htm

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Tags: crabs, gills, how do crabs breathe, how do crabs breathe on land

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 4th, 2013 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Crab Facts . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.