The family Thaumastochelidae contains five known species of deep-sea lobsters, three in the genus Thaumastocheles, and two in the genus Thaumastochelopsis. The fifth species was discovered in the ten–year Census of Marine Life.[1][2] These creatures are distinguished from other clawed lobsters by their blindness (an adaptation to deep-sea life), and by their single elongated, spiny chela.[3]
| Thaumastochelidae | |
|---|---|
| |
| Thaumastocheles massonktenos | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
| Superfamily: | Nephropoidea |
| Family: | Thaumastochelidae Bate, 1888 |
| Genera | |
|
Thaumastocheles Wood-Mason, 1874 | |
The family Thaumastochelidae is now more usually subsumed into the lobster family Nephropidae.[4]
The five species are as follows:
- Thaumastocheles
- Thaumastocheles dochmiodon Chan & de Saint Laurent, 1999 is found in the Timor Sea.
- Thaumastocheles japonicus Calman, 1913, the "Pacific pincer lobster", is endemic to the Sea of Japan.
- Thaumastocheles zaleucus Thomson, 1873, the "Atlantic pincer lobster" or "Atlantic deep-sea lobster", is endemic to the Caribbean region.
- Thaumastochelopsis
- Thaumastochelopsis brucei Ahyong, Chu & Chan, 2007 lives in the Coral Sea.
- Thaumastochelopsis wardi Bruce, 1988, the "Australian pincer lobster", lives in the Coral Sea.
References
edit- ^ "Image Gallery". Census of Marine Life. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
- ^ "Deep sea oddities and more from the Census of Marine Life". Fox News. 2009-11-23.
- ^ A. J. Bruce (1988). "Thaumastochelopsis wardi, gen. et. sp. nov., a new blind deep-sea lobster from the coral sea (Crustacea : Decapoda : Nephropidea)" (PDF). Invertebrate Taxonomy. 2 (7): 903–914. doi:10.1071/it9880903.
- ^ Tin-Yam Chan (2009). "Nephropidae Dana, 1852". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 24 July 2017.