Bodega Bay critter

TikiBird

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I don’t have a tank of my own anymore (RIP BioCube
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/TikiBird's-first-SW-tank-(BioCube-29).265785/), but I was at Bodega Bay (Northern California) this week and spotted this little guy on the beach. (Hope it’s OK to post here.)

He was on his back with legs wiggling in the air (four maybe?), covered with sand stuck to him so he was hard to see. He was about 2 inches long. We flipped him over and this is what his shell looked like.

He didn’t seem like he wanted to be on dry sand and he was very far from the water (maybe a bird picked him up and dropped him here?) so we brought him to the shoreline. We hoped to get a pic of him when the sand rinsed off, but soon as he hit some water he buried into the wet sand immediately!

I was thinking a crab but the shell doesn’t look like any I’ve seen. Maybe a hermit crab that moved into another shell? Any thoughts?

7dd62a676974f66ac3a421c97fd79677.jpg
7e12ec72b48683a3ba5c943468cb8e68.jpg


[Edit to add: I’ve tried googling but it’s tricky because most of the crab articles about Bodega Bay are about eating them!]
 
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TikiBird

TikiBird

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It's hard to tell from the picture, but it may be a sand crab... maybe


Yes, that’s got to be it! The shell looks like it did and he buried in the sand along the waves like it describes. Thank you @ebslinger—it didn’t occur to me to look at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s site, but you nailed it! My kiddo will be happy to have an ID for him. :)
 
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