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Pasiphaea pacifica    
     
     
     
     

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Decapods

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Decapod means “ten footed”. This group includes the most advanced crustaceans: the lobsters, crabs and shrimps. Most decapods have a pelagic larval phase used to spread the population, but with the exception of the shrimps most are strictly benthic as adults. Even within the shrimp, most species live close to the bottom rather then high up in the water column. Within the subarctic there are only a few species that are considered truly pelagic as an adult. The adults of these shrimp are only 3-5 cm in body length.

We don’t know much about the specific biology of these pelagic species, or their role in subarctic food webs. They avoid surface waters preferring greater depth. Like most shrimps, they will go through 3 different types of larval stages (nauplius, protozoea, mysid) before becoming a juvenile that resembles the adult. The juveniles and adults will have an unfixed number of stages. 

Mysids are a group thet superficlly resembles true shrimps, they are dsitinquihed by a pair of statocysts in the tail, and lack of complex gills protected by the body carpace. Most are benthic, but a few pelagic species exit in the subarctic Pacific.

Page Author: Russ Hopcroft
Created: January 1, 2010