More than 520 species of predatory sea crustaceans, usually about 10 cm long, that live in burrows on shallow tropical and subtropical seabeds. "Smashers" club prey with a mineralised hammer and "spearers" stab it with spiny claws. Their eyes are among the most complex known.
Quick answers
What is it?Crustacean
Carnivore?Yes
Dangerous?Can be
Nicknamed "thumb splitter": it can inflict painful wounds if handled carelessly.
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Day & night
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?In places
Eaten in Japan (as shako sushi), Vietnam, southern China, the Philippines, Kiribati and around the Mediterranean.
At a glance
Found inOceans
HabitatCoast
ColoursGreen, Red, Blue
SizeSmall
LengthUsually about 10 cm; up to 38 cm
Legs16
Covered inExoskeleton
Lives alone
Lives for20 years
Can swim
Lays eggs
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Shallow tropical and subtropical seas; most species live in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from eastern Africa to Hawaii.
- What it eats
- Other animals: smashers crack open crabs, snails, rock oysters and other molluscs.
Did you know
Its punch is so fast the water forms bubbles that hit the prey again, and its eyes have 12–16 kinds of light receptor to our four.
A club strike can reach 23 m/s, and the collapsing bubbles it leaves hit the prey a second time.
Some species pair for life, sharing a burrow with the same partner for up to 20 years.
Often confused with
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