''Palaemon elegans'' sometimes known by the common name rockpool shrimp, 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 ...

of shrimp of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Palaemonidae Palaemonidae is a family of shrimp in the order Decapoda. Many species are carnivores that eat small invertebrates, and can be found in any aquatic habitat except the deep sea. One significant genus is ''Macrobrachium'', which contains commercia ...

. It is native to the eastern North Atlantic (including

Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands ...

), the Baltic, the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

, and introduced in the Caspian and Aral seas. It is similar to three other members of the genus ''Palaemon'': '' Palaemon serratus'', '' Palaemon longirostris'' and '' Palaemon adspersus'', and has displaced or replaced populations of ''Palaemon adspersus'' in some locations. It is considered an invasive species in parts of the United States.

References

External links

Palaemonidae Crustaceans described in 1837 {{Caridea-stub