Crustaceans, Province of Vicenza, Italy
Fossil crab
Harpactoxanthopsis quadrilobatus
The crab is preserved in three dimensions, complete with claws and legs, although fossil crabs usually retain only the carapace.
550 000 ₽ · In stock
- Epoch
- Palaeogene period
- Age
- ≈ 40 Mya
- Origin
- Province of Vicenza, Italy
- Classification
- Decapod crustaceans, crab of the genus Harpactoxanthopsis
- Habitat
- Warm, shallow Eocene sea; seafloor among corals
- Ref.
- R–0660
This fossil crab, Harpactoxanthopsis quadrilobatus, is preserved in three dimensions rather than as an impression. Its oval, cream-toned carapace is finely granulated and crossed by a thin crack. Both claws, with their dark tips, remain in place, as do the slender jointed legs. The crab rests on a block of pale grey limestone from which it was prepared.
Some forty million years ago, in the Eocene, one of the epochs of the Palaeogene period, a warm, shallow sea with reefs lay where the province of Vicenza is today. The crab lived on the seabed among corals and sand, feeding on molluscs and carrion.
A crab's carapace is built of calcium carbonate and mineralises readily — that is, over time it turns to stone. Slender legs and claws are rarely preserved, which is why a crab from the Vicenza limestones that retains them in three dimensions is especially prized. At close range every detail can be seen: the granulation of the carapace, the leg joints, the dark tips of the claws.
In life
The crab kept to the seabed among corals and sand in warm shallow waters, feeding on molluscs and carrion.