| Cancer Temporal range: Miocene–Recent |
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|---|---|
| Edible crab, Cancer pagurus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Infraorder: | Brachyura |
| Family: | Cancridae |
| Genus: | Cancer Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Type species | |
| Cancer pagurus Linnaeus, 1758 [1] |
|
| Synonyms [1] | |
|
Platycarcinus H. Milne-Edwards, 1834 |
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Cancer is a genus of marine crabs in the family Cancridae. It includes 8 extant species and 3 extinct species, including familiar crabs of the littoral zone, such as the European edible crab (Cancer pagurus), the Jonah crab (Cancer borealis) and the red rock crab (Cancer productus). It is thought to have evolved from related genera in the Pacific Ocean in the Miocene.
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The species placed in the genus Cancer are united by the presence of a single posterolateral spine (on the edge of the carapace, towards the rear), anterolateral spines with deep fissures (on the carapace edge, towards the front), and a short extension of the carapace forward between the eyes.[2] Their claws are typically short, with grainy or smooth, rather than spiny, keels.[2] The carapace is typically oval, being 58%–66% as long as wide, and the eyes separated by 22%–29% of the carapace width.[2]
When originally named as a genus by Carl Linnaeus in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Cancer included most of the larger crustaceans, including all the crabs.[3] Later authors divided it into an increasing number of genera, and the genus Cancer, as currently circumscribed, contains only eight extant species:[1]
Three fossil species are also included:[2]
As their generic delimitation was based on characters of the dorsal carapace, Schweitzer and Feldmann (2000) were unable to confirm the placement of Cancer tomowoi in the genus, since it is known only from parts of the sternum and the legs.[2] Other species until recently included in the genus Cancer have since been transferred to other genera, such as Glebocarcinus, Metacarcinus and Romaleon.[1]
The earliest fossils that can be confidently ascribed to the genus Cancer are those of C. fujinaensis from the Japanese Miocene.[2] The genus is therefore though to have evolved in the northern Pacific Ocean, perhaps during the Miocene, and have spread across that ocean and into the Atlantic Ocean by the Pliocene or Pleistocene, having crossed the equator and the Straits of Panama.[2]