Crab (Books)

Crabs are invertebrate animals mentioned in the How to Train Your Dragon Book series.

Description
True crabs (Infraorder Brachyura) are decapods - they have 10 appendages - and are generally bilaterally symmetrical. Commonly crabs are thought to live in the ocean, but can also live in freshwater and on land, especially in tropical regions. The front-most pair of appendages have been modified into claws or pincers, used for grasping things and for protection. Many crab species have physical differences between males and females, such as structure of their exoskeleton and size. Most crabs also have complex social behaviors such as fighting for mates, cooperative food gathering, migration, cooperative defense against predators, and communication.

Function
Crabs are mentioned in the Book series as wildlife in the sea, but do not appear to have other uses.

In reality, crabs are very popular worldwide as a food source for a variety of cultures. They are also often used in scientific research, such as determining pain response in invertebrates.

How to Train Your Dragon
As the Green Death lay at the bottom of the ocean and began to wake up, all the wildlife that had settled around him over the centuries exited the area.

"And, a week later, the sea around the Dragon Mountain - which had previously been teeming with crabs and lobsters and shoals and shoals of fish - was a great, underwater desert."

- Book 1

Hermit Crabs, though not true crabs but are called such because they have analogous morphology, are also mentioned in this chapter.

"Generation after generation of little hermit crabs had been born and had died in this Dragon's ears."

- Book 1