A shrimp is a small shellfish with long legs and a long body that has a hard casing. Shrimp don't have a backbone like you do. In fact, they don't have a skeleton inside their body at all. Instead, they have a hard, shell-like covering called an exoskeleton that protects them and gives their body its shape.
There are about 2,000 different kinds of shrimp. They are good at adjusting to their surroundings and are found in both saltwater and freshwater all over the world. Some are so tiny that you can hardly see them, while others can be as long as 12 inches.
Tiger shrimps are the largest of commercially marketed shrimp with an average harvest size of 9 to 11 inches long but can grow to about 13 inches.
A shrimp’s heart is located at the bottom of its head. Shrimps also have an open circulatory system: they have no arteries and their organs float directly in blood.
It is much more advantageous having its heart located in the head region than located in the tail part. That’s because the cephalic portion (the head) is covered with thick protective substances.
It’s much safer as it protects their internal organs. Also, the shrimp’s heart, located in its head, has three pairs of heart entrances. Through these entrances, blood comes to the heart. The arteries extend for many directions.
Its heart is located on its thorax just after the head, but both the head and the thorax are covered with a single exoskeleton only, that is why the shrimps thorax can be mistaken as still part of the shrimp's head.
People tend to confuse shrimps with prawns but there is a difference between them.
In shrimps, the side plate of the second segment of the abdomen overlaps the segments in front and behind.
Whereas, prawns have all the abdominal side plates overlapping tile-like from the front.
Just like in humans, the main processing organ in the shrimp central nervous system is the shrimp brain. The shrimp brain is much smaller, composed of only a few nerve cell clusters, or ganglia. It is found on the back, or dorsal, side of the shrimp's head.
Their exoskeleton isn't their only protection. They also have a hard, pointed, beak-like nose that they use to stab at enemies, including people.
Another interesting fact you should know is that shrimps like to hang out with other shrimp, so they live together in groups called 'schools' and talk to each other by making snappy, clicking noises.
One special kind of shrimp, called a cleaner shrimp, has a very important job - they actually clean fish. Cleaner shrimp will get together in groups called cleaning stations. Fish will swim up to a cleaning station, like going through a drive-through.
The shrimp will clean leftover food and pests out of the fish's mouth and off its body, and they will eat what they clean off. They even climb into the fish's mouth, go down its throat and pop back out through its gills to make sure it leaves clean and happy, inside and out!
What a wonderful work of nature! Indeed, this special animal has a place in my heart. I hope it does have a place in your pot & plate as well?
photo courtesy: oddfacts.netA shrimps heart is located on its head. But if we will base it on the exact anatomy of a shrimp, its heart is located on its thorax just after the head, but both the head and the thorax are covered with a single exoskeleton only, that is why the shrimps thorax can be mistaken as still part of the shrimps head. But in general, we see a shrimp divided only into 2 parts, the head and the tail, we see no thorax in it. With that we can still say that a shrimps heart is on its head.
Additional info...
Are you having trouble differentiating shrimps from prawns?
Hope this will help:
source: museumvictoria.com
There is often confusion regarding the difference between a shrimp and a prawn. Physically they look very similar but there is one sure way to tell them apart. In shrimps or carideans the side plate of the second segment of the abdomen overlaps the segments in front and behind. Prawns, most of which belong to the family Penaeidae of the group Dendrobranchiata, have all the abdominal side plates overlapping tile-like from the front. A more fundamental difference but one impossible to appreciate in a single specimen is that female prawns do not brood eggs but shed them into the currents where they develop independently. It would therefore make sense to call all member s of the Penaeidae "prawns" and members of the Caridean "shrimps".