| Harpactocarcinus Temporal range: Cretaceous to Miocene, | |
|---|---|
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| Harpactocarcinus punctulatus at the Houston Museum of Natural Science | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Infraorder: | Brachyura |
| Section: | Eubrachyura |
| Subsection: | Heterotremata |
| Superfamily: | Carpilioidea |
| Family: | † Zanthopsidae |
| Genus: | † Harpactocarcinus A. Milne-Edwards, 1862 |
This genus is known in the fossil record from the end of the Cretaceous to the Miocene. Fossils within this genus have been found in Iran, Europe, Turkey, Mexico, United States and New Zealand. [1]
Alphonse Milne-Edwards was a French mammalologist, ornithologist, and carcinologist. He was English in origin, the son of Henri Milne-Edwards and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who settled at Bruges.
Xanthidae is a family of crabs known as gorilla crabs, mud crabs, pebble crabs or rubble crabs. Xanthid crabs are often brightly coloured and are highly poisonous, containing toxins which are not destroyed by cooking and for which no antidote is known. The toxins are similar to the tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin produced by puffer fish, and may be produced by bacteria in the genus Vibrio living in symbiosis with the crabs, mostly V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus.
Portunidae is a family of crabs which contains the swimming crabs.
Cancridae is a family of crabs. It comprises six extant genera, and ten exclusively fossil genera, in two subfamilies:
Parthenopidae is a family of crabs, placed in its own superfamily, Parthenopoidea. It comprises nearly 40 genera, divided into two subfamilies, with three genera incertae sedis:
Justitia is a genus of spiny lobsters. Following the recognition of Nupalirus as a separate genus, Justitia comprises one extant species and two fossil species:
The Varunidae are a family of thoracotrematan crabs. The delimitation of this family, part of the taxonomically confusing Grapsoidea, is undergoing revision. For a long time, they were placed at the rank of subfamily in the Grapsidae, but they appear to be closest to Macropthalmus and the Mictyridae, which are usually placed in the Ocypodoidea. It may thus be better to merge the latter superfamily with the Grapsoidea, retaining the latter name as it is older.
Etyiidae is a prehistoric family of dromiacean crabs only known from Cretaceous and a few Paleocene fossils. Seven genera are included:
Carpilioidea is a superfamily of crabs containing a single extant family, Carpiliidae and three extinct families. The modern range of the family includes the Indo-Pacific, Western Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. The fossil record of the group extends back at least as far as the Paleocene.
Goneplacidae is a family of crabs of the order Decapoda and the superfamily Goneplacoidea. It includes the following genera:
Pilumnoidea is a superfamily of crabs, whose members were previously included in the Xanthoidea. The three families are unified by the free articulation of all the segments of the male crab's abdomen and by the form of the gonopods. The earliest fossils assigned to this group are of Eocene age.
Actumnus is a genus of crabs in the family Pilumnidae. Alongside the 28 extant species, it has a fossil record extending back into the Miocene.
Dairoidea is a superfamily of crabs, comprising two families which each contain a single genus: Dairidae and Dacryopilumnidae (Dacryopilumnus) .
Palicoidea is a superfamily of crabs, comprising the two families Crossotonotidae and Palicidae. Together, they contain 13 genera, including two genera in the Palicidae known only from fossils. The two families were previously treated as two subfamilies in a Palicidae of wider circumscription.
Hepatus is a genus of crabs in the family Aethridae, containing seven extant species, plus some fossil species:
The Galatheoidea are a superfamily of decapod crustaceans comprising the porcelain crabs and some squat lobsters. Squat lobsters within the three families of the superfamily Chirostyloidea are not closely related to the squat lobsters within the Galatheoidea. The fossil record of the superfamily extends back to the Middle Jurassic genus Palaeomunidopsis.
Leucosiidae is a family of crabs containing three subfamilies and a number of genera incertae sedis:
Speocarcinus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing six extant species, one fossil species from the Late Miocene, one fossil species from the Eocene (Lutetian) and one fossil species from the Early Eocene (Ypresian):
Calappilia is an extinct genus of box crabs belonging to the family Calappidae. The type species of the genus is Calappilia verrucosa.