OK, so what is it?

I got sent this image the other day – an example of a found “face”. I can see the face quite clearly but didn’t recognize that I was actually looking at a crab carapace, probably picked up from the beach sand somewhere in Florida.

I’ve tried tracking down the crab species – the closest I’ve come is it’s likely a smallish stone crab. Many of the Florida crab species have a much wider carapace. Also most don’t have such a profusion of spines along the front (“head”) edge.

Whatever it is, I’ve added the image to my “faces” collection.