Hermit crab Hermit crab Hermit crabs are decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea. Most of the approximately 1,110 species possess an asymmetrical abdomen that is concealed in a scavenged mollusc shell carried around by the hermit crab. Most species have long, spirally curved abdomens, which are soft, unlike the hard, calcified abdomens seen in related crustaceans. The vulnerable abdomen is protected from predators by a salvaged empty seashell carried by the hermit crab, into which its whole body can retract. Most frequently, hermit crabs use the shells of sea snails (although the shells of bivalves and scaphopods and even hollow pieces of
History of manifolds and varieties spaces with a differentiable or topological structure, while "variety" refers to spaces with an algebraic structure, as in algebraic varieties. In Romance languages, manifold is translated as "variety" – such spaces with a differentiable structure are literally translated as "analytic varieties", while spaces with an algebraic structure are called "algebraic varieties". Thus for example, the french word "" means topological manifold. In the same vein, the Japanese word "" (tayōtai) also encompasses both manifold and variety. ("" (tayō) means various.) Ancestral to the modern concept of a manifold were several important results of 18th and 19th century mathematics. The oldest