carapace
Sign in to savethumb|200px|Diagram of a prawn, with the carapace highlighted in red A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Crustaceans
- Arachnids
- Turtles and tortoises
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|200px|Diagram of a prawn, with the carapace highlighted in red A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.
==Crustaceans== thumb|The molted carapace of a lady crab from [[Long Beach, New York]] In crustaceans, the carapace functions as a protective cover over the cephalothorax (i.e., the fused head and thorax, as distinct from the abdomen behind). Where it projects forward beyond the eyes, this projection is called a rostrum. The carapace is calcified to varying degrees in different crustaceans.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “carapace” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.