Tobsters are arthropods, as are crabs and insects. The name (from the Greek for ‘having jointed feet’) is well chosen: the legs consist of various parts, and the body too comprises various segments which, in principle, follow the same construction plan. Crabs (such as Eumorphocorystes sculptus from the Cretaceous) differ from lobsters by the strong lengthwise reduction of the cephalothorax and by the absence of a fan tail. The commonest lobster in the Maastricht Chalks is Protocallianassa faujasi. Of this species only the claws are found. Probably the animal had no other durable parts and lived in burrows of its own making.

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