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A carapace is a dorsal
Dorsum (biology)

In anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run, fly, or swim in a horizontal position, and the back side of animals that walk upright....
 section of the exoskeleton
Exoskeleton

An exoskeleton is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal endoskeleton of, for example, a human skeleton....
 or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropod
Arthropod

Arthropods are animals belonging to the Scientific classification Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others....
s such as crustacean
Crustacean

Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
s and arachnid
Arachnid

Arachnids are a class of Arthropod invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. All arachnids have eight legs, but some exceptions are of some species having the first pair legs convert to sensory function and harvest mite larvae have only 3 pairs of legs....
s (crabs and their relatives and spiders and their relatives) as well as vertebrates such as chelonians, order Testudines, turtles and tortoises.

n crustaceans, the carapace is a part of the exoskeleton that covers the cephalothorax
Cephalothorax

The cephalothorax is an Anatomy term used in arachnids and malacostracan crustaceans for the first major body section. The remainder of the body is the abdomen , which may also bear lateral appendages as well as the tail, if present....
. It is particularly well developed in lobster
Lobster

Clawed lobsters compose a family of large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are economically important as seafood, forming the basis of a global industry that nets United States dollar1.8 billion in trade annually....
s and crab
Crab

Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
s.

The carapace functions as a protective cover over the cephalothorax.






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A carapace is a dorsal
Dorsum (biology)

In anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run, fly, or swim in a horizontal position, and the back side of animals that walk upright....
 section of the exoskeleton
Exoskeleton

An exoskeleton is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal endoskeleton of, for example, a human skeleton....
 or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropod
Arthropod

Arthropods are animals belonging to the Scientific classification Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others....
s such as crustacean
Crustacean

Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
s and arachnid
Arachnid

Arachnids are a class of Arthropod invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. All arachnids have eight legs, but some exceptions are of some species having the first pair legs convert to sensory function and harvest mite larvae have only 3 pairs of legs....
s (crabs and their relatives and spiders and their relatives) as well as vertebrates such as chelonians, order Testudines, turtles and tortoises.

Crustaceans

]] In crustaceans, the carapace is a part of the exoskeleton that covers the cephalothorax
Cephalothorax

The cephalothorax is an Anatomy term used in arachnids and malacostracan crustaceans for the first major body section. The remainder of the body is the abdomen , which may also bear lateral appendages as well as the tail, if present....
. It is particularly well developed in lobster
Lobster

Clawed lobsters compose a family of large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are economically important as seafood, forming the basis of a global industry that nets United States dollar1.8 billion in trade annually....
s and crab
Crab

Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
s.

The carapace functions as a protective cover over the cephalothorax. Where it projects forward beyond the eyes, this projection is called a rostrum
Rostrum (anatomy)

A rostrum is an anatomy structure resembling a beak, such as the snout of a crocodile or dolphin or the foremost extension of a crustacean carapace....
. The carapace is calcified to varying degrees in different crustaceans.

Zooplankton
Zooplankton

Zooplankton are the heterotrophic type of plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in the Pelagic zone of oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water....
 within the phylum Crustacea also have a carapace. These include Cladocera
Cladocera

Cladocera or cladocerans are small crustaceans commonly called water fleas, part of the Class Branchiopoda. They form a monophyly, which is currently divided into four suborders, 11 family , 80 genus, and about 400 species....
, Copepods, Ostracods, Amphipods, and Isopods.

Arachnida

In arachnid
Arachnid

Arachnids are a class of Arthropod invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. All arachnids have eight legs, but some exceptions are of some species having the first pair legs convert to sensory function and harvest mite larvae have only 3 pairs of legs....
s, the carapace is formed by the fusion of prosomal (= of cephalothorax
Cephalothorax

The cephalothorax is an Anatomy term used in arachnids and malacostracan crustaceans for the first major body section. The remainder of the body is the abdomen , which may also bear lateral appendages as well as the tail, if present....
) tergites into a single plate which carries the eyes, ocularium, ozopore
Ozopore

An ozopore is a defensive gland present in harvestman, which are eight-legged arachnids also known as "daddy long-legs". These glands, also called "scent glands", "repugnatorial glands", "odoriferous glands" or "stink glands" by various authors, are located at the anterior sides of the prosoma....
s (a pair of openings of the scent gland of Opiliones
Opiliones

Harvestmen are eight-legged invertebrate animals belonging to the order Opiliones in the class Arachnida, in the subphylum Chelicerata of the phylum Arthropoda....
) and diverse phaneres.

In a few orders, such as Solifugae
Solifugae

Solifugae is an Order of Arachnida, containing more than 1,000 described species in about 140 genus. The name derives from Latin, and means those that flee from the sun....
 and Schizomida the carapace may be subdivided. In Opiliones some authors prefer to use the term carapace interchangeably with the term cephalothorax, which is incorrect usage, because carapace refers only to the dorsal part of the exoskeleton of the cephalothorax.

An alternative term for the carapace of arachnids and their relatives, which avoids confusion with crustaceans, is prosomal dorsal shield.

Turtles and tortoises

The carapace is the dorsal
Dorsal

Dorsal is an adjective which means being at the back.Dorsal may refer to:* Dorsum , a part of an animal* A dorsal consonant, in linguistics...
, convex part of the shell structure of a turtle
Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the Order Testudines , most of whose body is shielded by a special bone or cartilage animal shell developed from their ribs....
, consisting primarily of the animal's broad rib
Rib

In vertebrate anatomy, ribs are the long curved bones which form the ribcage. In most vertebrates, ribs surround the chest and protect the lungs, heart, and other internal Organ s of the thorax....
cage. The spine
Vertebral column

In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column of 24 vertebrae, the sacrum, intervertebral discs, and the coccyx situated in the dorsum aspect of the torso, separated by spinal discs....
 and ribs are fused to bony plates beneath the skin which interlock to form a hard shell. Exterior to the skin the shell is covered by scutes, horny plates which protect the shell from scrapes and bruises.

Turtles can survive surprisingly severe injuries to the carapace, and even deep cracks or missing portions can fill in with bone and heal. The softshell turtles
Trionychidae

Trionychidae is a taxonomy family which comprises a number of turtle genus commonly known as soft-shell turtles. It consists of some of the world's largest fresh water turtles, though many can adapt to living in highly brackish areas....
, pig-nose turtle and leatherback sea turtle
Leatherback Sea Turtle

The leatherback turtle is the largest of all living sea turtles and the fourth largest reptile behind three crocodilians. It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys....
 lack scutes and the bony carapace is covered only by skin.

The carapaces of many species of turtles are brightly colored and patterned and allow individuals to identify others of their species at a distance. The carapaces expand and grow outward like growth rings on a tree as the turtle or tortoise matures. The consistency of the carapace resembles hard keratin
Keratin

Keratins are a family of fibrous protein; tough and insoluble, they form the hard but mineral structures found in reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals....
 rather than bone. The plastron
Plastron

The plastron is the nearly flat part of the shell structure of a turtle or tortoise, what one would call the belly, similar in composition to the carapace; with an external layer of horny material divided into plates called scutes and an underlying layer of interlocking bones....
 makes up the lower half of a turtle's shell.

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