Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Crustacea

Subclass: Copepoda

 

Norwegian: copepoder

(Ingdalen - The Trondheim fjord / 29 meters / 12.03.2005)

The Copepoda subclass includes more than 9000 species of crustaceans with a body size ranging from 0.5 to 15 mm. Most of them are simply too small to be photographed with common camera equipment in their natural environment. Many of the copepods are parasites, but many free-swimming species serve as food for fish and marine mammals.