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decapod(dĕk`əpŏd') (Gr.,=10 feet), name for invertebrate animals of the crustaceancrustacean
, primarily aquatic arthropod of the subphylum Crustacea. Most of the 44,000 crustacean species are marine, but there are many freshwater forms. The few groups that inhabit terrestrial areas have not been particularly successful in an evolutionary sense; most require
..... Click the link for more information. order Decapoda (phylum ArthropodaArthropoda
[Gr.,=jointed feet], largest and most diverse animal phylum. The arthropods include crustaceans, insects, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, scorpions, and the extinct trilobites.
..... Click the link for more information. ) including the crabs, the lobsters and crayfish, and the true shrimps, all having five pairs of legs. The name Decapoda was also formerly applied to a very different group of animals, a cephalopodcephalopod
, member of the class Cephalopoda, the most highly organized group of mollusks (phylum Mollusca), and including the squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, and nautiluses. The class as a whole has become adapted for a free-swimming existence.
..... Click the link for more information. order including the cuttlefish and squids, characterized by two long and eight short tentacles. The cuttlefish are now classified in the order Sepioidea and the squids in the order Teuthoidea of the class Cephalopoda in the phylum MolluscaMollusca
, taxonomic name for the one of the largest phyla of invertebrate animals (Arthropoda is the largest) comprising more than 50,000 living mollusk species and about 35,000 fossil species dating back to the Cambrian period.
..... Click the link for more information. .
1. any crustacean of the mostly marine order Decapoda, having five pairs of walking limbs: includes the crabs, lobsters, shrimps, prawns, and crayfish
2. any cephalopod mollusc of the order Decapoda, having a ring of eight short tentacles and two longer ones: includes the squids and cuttlefish
3. (of any other animal) having ten limbs