Zooplankton of Mid-Atlantic Estuarine & Coastal Waters
Millersville University Department of Biology on NatureAtlas.org©
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Identify by Shape

Use this interactive, illustrated key to identify the type of zooplankton you have. This key begins with many entry points that you can choose based on the general shape of the organism. The pages that follow provide photographs and descriptions of the zooplankton types that fit those shapes.



You likely have a crustacean.

A crustacean is a type of arthropod of the phylum Arthropoda. Like other arthropods, crustaceans have a hard, chitinized exoskeleton and segmented bodies with many jointed appendages. Crustaceans, the most abundant arthropod group in marine waters, are distinguished from other arthropods (e.g., insects and spiders) by having two pairs of antennae.

Click on a category below to take to you a description and more pictures of each group.