#4472 · 🦀 crabs & other crustaceans
Chameleon Shrimp
🇳🇱 Geknikte aasgarnaal ·Praunus flexuosus
9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Praunus flexuosus , known as the chameleon shrimp , is a species of opossum shrimp found in European waters. 0 in) long, with a distinctly bent body, and closely resembles Praunus neglectus . It lives in shallow water and tolerates a wide range of salinities. It is found from northern France to the Baltic Sea, and was introduced to North America in the mid 20th century.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 22 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #37 most seen of the crabs & other crustaceans in NL.
- 540 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Otto Friedrich Müller in 1776 (250 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Chameleon Shrimp
- Nederlands
- Geknikte aasgarnaal
- scientific name
- Praunus flexuosus
- class
- Malacostraca
- order
- Mysida
- family
- Mysidae
- sightings in NL
- 22
- sightings in Europe
- 113
- sightings worldwide
- 540
- GBIF records in NL
- 1,040
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1776 by Otto Friedrich Müller
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 203480, Wikidata Q3858286, GBIF 2220799, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.