Crab Death Assemblages from Laguna Madre and Vicinity, Texas

Crabs are a major component of modern marine ecosystems, but are only rarely described in fossil assemblages. Studies of brachyuran taphonomy have examined either the fossil end-products of the taphonomic process or the very earliest stages of decay and decomposition. The next logical step is the analysis of modern crab death assemblages; i.e., studies that examine taphonomic loss in areas where the composition of the living assemblage is known. The authors studied crab death assemblages in shallow water sediments at several localities in an near Laguna Madre, Texas. Nearly every sample examined contained some crab remains, most commonly in the form of isolated claws (dactyl and propodus). A crab fauna associated with a buried grass bed contained abundant remains of the xanthid crab Dyspanopeus texanus, including carapaces, chelipeds, and thoraxes, as well as fragments of the portunid Callinectes sapidus and the majiid Libinia dubia. Crab remains may be an overlooked portion of many preserved benthic assemblages, both in recent and modern sediments.