''Palaemon adspersus'', commonly called Baltic prawn, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

that is frequent in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, and is the subject of

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. It is up to long, and lives in ''

Zostera ''Zostera'' is a small genus of widely distributed seagrasses, commonly called marine eelgrass, or simply seagrass or eelgrass, and also known as seaweed by some fishermen and recreational boaters including yachtsmen. The genus ''Zostera'' con ...

'' beds.

Description

''Palaemon adspersus'' is up to long, with a plain yellowish-grey body. The

rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ships * Ros ...

bears distinctive spots of pigment on its lower half.

Distribution and ecology

Peeling cooked baltic prawns Dragstrup Vig 2009-08-04

''Palaemon adspersus'' is uncommon over most of north-western Europe, but forms the basis of a significant

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

in the

Danish straits The Danish straits are the straits connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea through the Kattegat and Skagerrak. Historically, the Danish straits were internal waterways of Denmark; however, following territorial losses, Øresund and Fehmarn Be ...

. In the

, it can tolerate

salinities Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

as low as 5

‰ Per mille (from Latin , "in each thousand") is an expression that means parts per thousand. Other recognised spellings include per mil, per mill, permil, permill, or permille. The associated sign is written , which looks like a percent sig ...

, but it

overwinters Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal activi ...

in deeper, more saline waters offshore. In

, ''P. adspersus'' is closely associated with ''

'' (eelgrass) beds, and is replaced by ''

Palaemon elegans ''Palaemon elegans'' sometimes known by the common name rockpool shrimp, is a species of shrimp of the family Palaemonidae. It is native to the eastern North Atlantic (including Macaronesia), the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea ...

'' where the eelgrass is lacking.

Taxonomic history

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

described this species under the name ''Cancer squilla'' in his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' (1758, 1761). As more genera were split from Linnaeus' ''Cancer'', this species became known as ''Leander squilla'', while the genus '' Palaemon'' was used for other species. In 1897, Mary Jane Rathbun realised that a

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

for the genus ''Palaemon'' had been made in 1810 by

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom ...

, and that the chosen species was ''Cancer squilla''. This required the genus then known as ''Leander'' to become ''Palaemon'', while the genus then known as ''Palaemon'' had to become ''

Macrobrachium ''Macrobrachium'' is a genus of freshwater prawns or shrimps characterised by the extreme enlargement of the second pair of pereiopods, at least in the male. Species It contains these species: *'' Macrobrachium acanthochirus'' F. Villalobo ...

''. Not all biologists followed the new nomenclature, and the confusion was eventually resolved by a ruling from the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

(ICZN), which stated that the type species of ''Palaemon'' would be ''Palaemon adspersus''. In 1958,

Lipke Holthuis Lipke Bijdeley Holthuis (21 April 1921 – 7 March 2008) was a Dutch crustacean, carcinologist, considered one of the "undisputed greats" of carcinology, and "the greatest carcinologist of our time". Holthuis was born in Probolinggo, East Java a ...

petitioned the ICZN to suppress the Linnaean name ''Cancer squilla'' because it had come to be used for the species ''

'' even though the original description was of a different species. Despite opposition from some carcinologists, including

Robert Gurney Robert Gurney (31 July 1879 – 5 March 1950) was a British zoologist from the Gurney family, most famous for his monographs on ''British Freshwater Copepoda'' (1931–1933) and the ''Larvae of Decapod Crustacea'' (1942). He was not affiliated w ...

, the ICZN concurred, leaving ''Palaemon adspersus'' Rathke, 1837 the oldest available name for the species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q585024 Palaemonidae Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1837