Traits: Crustacean with many legs, a hard exoskeleton, and a body compressed from side to side; eyes of amphipods not on stalks (unlike shrimp); invertebrate animal

Habitat: Salt water, fresh-water lakes and ponds

Foods: Detritus and small invertebrates

Eaten by: Fish, water birds, whales, other aquatic predators

Do You Know? Beach amphipods, sometimes called sand fleas, are only 0.75 inches (2 cm) long, but they can leap 1.1 yards (1 m); that is farther than any organism of their size.