Woodcut of a "sea crab" from Des Monstres et prodiges by Ambroise Paré, 1573. Des Monstres is filled with unsubstantiated accounts of sea devils, marine sows, and monstrous animals with human faces. With its extensive discussion of reproduction and illust

---

Woodcut of a "sea crab" from Des Monstres et prodiges by Ambroise Paré, 1573. Des Monstres is filled with unsubstantiated accounts of sea devils, marine sows, and monstrous animals with human faces. With its extensive discussion of reproduction and illustrations of birth defects, the book invited accusations of pornography. Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting tail (abdomen), usually entirely hidden under the thorax. They live in all the world's oceans, in fresh water, and on land, are generally covered with a thick exoskeleton and have a single pair of claws. Many other animals with similar names, such as hermit crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, horseshoe crabs and crab lice, but are not true crabs.

---

Size: 4200px × 2369px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1573, 16th, ambroise, animal, art, arthropod, arthropoda, artwork, bw, calappidae, century, crab, creature, crustacea, crustacean, decapod, decapoda, des, drawing, dwelling, historic, historical, history, illustration, invertebrate, malacostraca, malacostracan, marine, marvels, monsters, monstres, ocean, ocean-dwelling, pare, paré, prodiges, prodigies, sea, sea-dwelling, woodblock, woodcut