What's the difference between a Prawn and a Shrimp?

An important difference between prawns and shrimps, is in the way the segments of the abdomen (tail) overlap. Shrimps have curled body compared to flat body of prawns. The Prawn is transparent with long legs and the Shrimp is the sandy colored. Prawn’s legs are longer than shrimp’s legs.

For basic difference look beneath the tail. The second segment of a shrimp overlaps both the first and the third segment, while the second segment of a prawn overlaps only the third segment. In penaeids (prawns) the sides of all segments overlap the segment behind, like roof tiles. In carideans (shrimps) the sides of the second segment overlap both the one before and the one after .

In prawns the first three of the five pairs of legs on the body have small pincers, while in shrimps only two pairs are claw-like. In some shrimps one or other of the first two pairs of legs is bigger than the other whereas in prawns all the legs are similar lengths.