Sculptural sand crab, found while beach walking in Galicia – one of my favourite activities there is to do. Literally mile upon mile of endless beaches to roam, most of which are deserted, and all of which are stunningly beautiful. What I also love are the finds to be made while taking a stroll. This has to be one of my favourites, an unidentified species of crab half buried in wind blown sand. It looks like it was in the middle of eating when it gave up the ghost to became a short lived beach sculpture. It was also quite lucky that my wife and I’s walking companion, our miniature dappled Dachshund Dexter, didn’t get to crunch on it first as is often the case. He was too busy on his endless seagull chase to have seen this treasure.
In terms of what species this sculptural sand crab is, at the time I took the photo I didn’t further disturb my subject and so didn’t take a closer look. However, I would have to make an educated guess that it is a species of Pachygrapsus, most likely P. marmoratus or the Marbled Rock Crab. This crab species lives on rocky shores where it feed on algae, mussels, limpets, and even individuals of its own species. That’s not nice. Hmmm, maybe my opinion that crabs are among the cutest animals around his slowly changing.