I have learnt a bit about isopods because I wrote my bachelor thesis on them. Since it was specifically about the skeletomusculature of the walking legs, I haven't really learnt much about other organs or the other types of legs, but I think I have a rough understanding of what makes an isopod. The walking legs of isopods are actually relatively unique among the related groups: Basically, crustaceans are thought to have originally possessed a biramous leg, which is also present in most of the groups related closely to isopods (a biramous leg is a leg that kinda splits into two branches). Isopods however reduced one of those branches, so they only got a linear order of leg segments. A caveat to this is kinda that the female isopods actually still have an outgrowth on the front legs: Isopods (and related groups) carry their eggs in brood pouches, and those are formed by these outgrowths on the leg segment closest to the body.

Return to index page