As a key ecological link in food webs of sandy beaches, ghost crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) are important for the maintenance of sandy beach ecosystems due to their scavenger properties in temperate and tropical regions

Ghost crabs “growl” when threatened by grinding the teeth inside their stomach against each other. While many crustaceans have teeth in their stomachs for grinding up food, the ghost crab is the first shown to use them to making sounds for communication as well.