In both groups, the claws are modified into tools for digging, and the body is a rounded shape that is easy to bury in sand.

[1] Raninids are omnivores and some have been found to have consumed Sardinella, crab, shrimp, bivalve, ray, hydroid, copepod, and squid.

[3] Raninids' dorsal surfaces have varying textures: smooth, pitted, granular, inclined or fungiform nodes, eroded, scabrous or terraced.

Sexually dimorphic characteristics of the abdomen are seen throughout the family, though throughout the subfamilies there are varying styles and degrees of development.

[1] Unlike other Podotremates, Raninids' spermatheca opens anteriorly on sternite 7 rather than at the extremities of sternal suture 7/8.

The formation of the spermathecal chamber, which doesn't differ much from the usual podotreme configuration, is done by the separation of the two laminae which compose endosternite 7/8.

[1] The taxonomic status of Raninidae has varied greatly with academics citing various information learned about them to try and discern where they belong.