This page is a rock pool. Move your pointer through the water and your animal will scuttle, creep, dart or drift after you. Choose a different animal at the bottom, and tap the notes to open them.
Macclesfield right now checking the sky…
A crab's legs bend sideways, like our knees bend forwards, so scuttling sideways is the fastest way for it to move.
A crab's shell can't grow, so it climbs out of the old one and puffs up a new, bigger one. For a few days the new shell is soft.
Young shore crabs can be green, brown, orange or patterned with white. Older ones are often redder underneath.
Look at the front edge of the shell: a shore crab has five points on each side of its eyes and three between them.
Shore crabs eat worms, shellfish, dead fish and seaweed. That's why they come so readily to crabbing lines.
If a crab loses a leg or a claw, it can grow a new one over its next few moults.
Meet them all
Carcinus maenas
The crab you're most likely to meet on a British beach: dark green, quick, and always walking sideways.
Pagurus bernhardus
A crab with a soft tail that lives in a borrowed sea snail shell and carries it everywhere.
Asterias rubens
An orange star with five arms, creeping very slowly over the rocks on hundreds of tiny tube feet.
Palaemon serratus
Almost see-through, with fine stripes and very long feelers. Easy to miss until it moves.
Aurelia aurita
Britain's most common jellyfish: a see-through saucer with four pale purple rings in the middle.
Lipophrys pholis
The little fish of the rock pool: blotchy, big-eyed and curious, with no scales and a long fin down its back.
Through the year
The green months are when you're most likely to see each one in Britain. The animal following you is shown in red.
Look after the shore
Check the tide times before you set off. The best pools are low down the shore, and you need to know when the sea is coming back.
If you lift a stone to look underneath, lower it back gently the same way up. It's somebody's roof.
Nets can hurt soft animals. Sit still and watch, or use a clear tub to look at something for a minute.
If you do put an animal in a bucket, use sea water, keep it in the shade and return it within a few minutes.
Put every animal back in the pool you found it in. Many know their own pool and can't find another.
Seaweed is slippery and rocks are sharp. Wear shoes with a good grip, and go with a grown-up.
Real photos of the animals on this page. Tap one to see it bigger.
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences. Open a photo to see who took it.
Check the tide times, go as the tide is going out, and crouch by a pool for a few minutes without moving. The animals come out once they think you've gone.
Back to the topThese live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
Snails and spiders aren't insects: a snail is a mollusc, and spiders have eight legs.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
Pond animals live on the Pond page: choosing one takes you there.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
River animals live on the River page: choosing one takes you there.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.
These live somewhere else: choosing one takes you to their page.