A Hermit Crab in a Different Shell

Remember the Blue Banded Hermit Crab that was using a Black Turban Snail shell for protection? Here is different crab, and it has found the empty shell of a Poulson’s Rock Shell Snail. I just wanted you to see how different the shells can be in a tide pool. When it was alive, the Poulson’s Rock Shell Snail would eat barnacles and mussels. How could it get through their hard shells? The snail would ooze out an acid and then scrape the shells with its radula until it made a hole. Then it would scrape out the soft animal with its radula. The Poulson’s Rock Shell Snail was probably eaten by a crab. Do you see the three small limpets? They are not Owl Limpets. They are called Mask Limpets. They are much smaller than Owl Limpets and they are marked differently. We see that, in tide pools, there are many creatures in the same class, but they may look different from each other. Just as you are in the same class with your friends, you look different than they do.


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