The stone crab range is from North Carolina to Florida and Texas, the Bahamas and West Indies to the Yucatan. The adult stone crabs live in burrows in sandy-mud shoals just below low-tide lines.The young stone crabs live in turtle grass beds, shell, and rock bottoms of channels.

All crabs lay eggs. They hatch into tiny larvae that are temporary members of the plankton. A typical crab goes through different stages.The first stage, they are a tiny mite is called a nauplius.It gradually grows and changes into a zoea, with long head spines. The zoea then changes to a megaplos , which has prominent claws that make the animal begin to look like a crab.

The stone crabs have brightly colored crushing claws that are able to break away the whelk's shell piece by piece. Stone crabs have strong claws .So if you ever see one don't pick it up or it will cut your finger.

This page was created by Martha Lara, as part of the Galveston Bay Project for Girls, 1999.

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