Which arthropod is the biggest?

Animals like insects, spiders, crabs, shrimp, and centipedes all belong to a group of animals called arthropods. The name “arthropod” means “jointed foot”, and all arthropods get around on jointed legs. They also have a hard outside called an exoskeleton. It’s like they have skeletons on the outside of their bodies!

There are more arthropods than any other group of animals on the planet, and of the arthropods, most of them are insects. They’re usually fairly small, but some of them can reach massive proportions!

The biggest of them all is the japanese spider crab. Its body is 2 feet long, and its legs from tip to tip are 13 feet wide! If two grown men lay down in a line, head-to-foot, the crab could stand over top of them! Some scientists think that they can live to be over 100 years old.

The American lobster is smaller than the spider crab, but it’s also heavier. One lobster can weigh 48 pounds – that’s about as much as a 7-year-old boy!

One thing all these animals have in common is that they live in the water. The biggest arthropod on land is the coconut crab. It’s also called the robber crab, because there are stories of them stealing shiny things from houses and tents! The coconut crab’s claws are so powerful that they could snap off a human finger if you get too close! They have to be – it needs those powerful claws to crack the tough shells of the coconuts it eats!