Carcinization

Quick meaning: Carcinization is a noun meaning (evolutionary theory, zoology) The convergent evolution of decapod crustaceans from forms dissimilar to true crabs into similar forms.

Meaning

(evolutionary theory, zoology) The convergent evolution of decapod crustaceans from forms dissimilar to true crabs into similar forms.

Example Sentences

It seems certain that carcinisation, return to a crab-like habitus, has evolved several times in the Anomura.

Porcelain crabs (Galatheoidea: Porcellanidae) and the hairy stone crab (Lomisoidea: Lomisidae) are also highly carcinised. They represent two additional independent instances of carcinisation within the Anomura, although their derivation has received much less attention than that of the king crabs.

Three independent carcinization events are identified (in Lithodidae, Porcellanidae, and Lomisidae). [...] Such a scenario may seem unlikely owing to the complex characters involved, but if carcinization has multiple, independent origins, then adaptation to dextral shell habitation may also be plausible.

[L]arval forms of the two groups [hermit crabs and king crabs] are remarkably alike; and carcinization (the evolution of crablike features) appears to have been a recurring theme in hermit crab evolution under ecological circumstances where the shells of gastropod snails are of limited availability (as for example in the deep sea).

Word Forms

• carcinisation

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include convergence, kenogenesis, morphocline, radiation, homoplasy, sacculinization.

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