The Decapoda or decapods are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, and prawns. Most decapods are scavengers. The order is estimated to contain nearly 15,000 extant species in around 2,700 genera, with around 3,300 fossil species. Nearly half of these species are crabs, with the shrimp and Anomura including hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, squat lobsters making up the bulk of the remainder. The earliest fossils of the group date to the Devonian.
The Achelata is an infra-order of the decapod crustaceans, holding the spiny lobsters, slipper lobsters and their fossil relatives.
Astacidea is an infraorder of decapod crustaceans including lobsters, crayfish, and their close relatives.
The Glypheoidea, is a group of lobster-like decapod crustaceans which forms an important part of fossil faunas, such as the Solnhofen limestone. These fossils included taxa such as Glyphea, and Mecochirus, mostly with elongated chelipeds. This group of decapods is a good example of a living fossil, or a lazarus taxon, since until their discovery in the 1970s, the group was considered to have become extinct in the Eocene. The superfamily Glypheoidea comprises five families. The two extant species, Neoglyphea inopinata and Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica, are both in the family Glypheidae.
Eucarida is a superorder of the Malacostraca, a class of the crustacean subphylum, comprising the decapods, krill, and Angustidontida. They are characterised by having the carapace fused to all thoracic segments, and by the possession of stalked eyes.
Aeger is a genus of fossil prawns. They first occur in the Early Triassic, and died out at the end of the Late Cretaceous. A total of 21 species are known.
Glypheidea is an infraorder of lobster-like decapod crustaceans, comprising a number of fossil forms and the two extant (living) genera Neoglyphea and Laurentaeglyphea: The infraorder was thought to be extinct until a living species, Neoglyphea inopinata, was discovered in 1975. They are now considered "living fossils", with over 256 fossil species discovered, and just two extant species.
The Majoidea are a superfamily of crabs which includes the various spider crabs.
Etyiidae is a prehistoric family of dromiacean crabs only known from Cretaceous and a few Paleocene fossils.
Eubrachyura is a group of decapod crustaceans comprising the more derived crabs. It is divided into two subsections, based on the position of the genital openings in the two sexes. In the Heterotremata, the openings are on the legs in the males, but on the sternum in females, while in the Thoracotremata, the openings are on the sternum in both sexes. This contrasts with the situation in other decapods, in which the genital openings are always on the legs. Heterotremata is the larger of the two groups, containing the species-rich superfamilies Xanthoidea and Pilumnoidea and all the freshwater crabs. The eubrachyura is well known for actively and constantly building its own burrows. The fossil record of the Eubrachyura extends back to the Cretaceous; the supposed Bathonian representative of the group, Hebertides jurassica, ultimately turned out to be Cenozoic in age.
Erymidae is a family of decapod crustaceans known only from fossils. They survived for 100 million years, from the Permo-Triassic boundary to the Albian. Eleven genera are recognised:
Goneplacoidea is a superfamily of crabs containing 11 extant families, and two families known only from fossils.
Branchioplax is an extinct genus of crab which existed in Alaska and Washington during the Eocene period. It was first named by Mary Rathbun in 1916, and contains ten species, including Branchioplax washingtoniana from the Hoko River Formation, Branchioplax carmanahensis, and Branchioplax ballingi.
Antrimpos is an extinct genus of crustacean which existed during the Triassic and Jurassic periods. It contains 15 species, including Antrimpos speciosus.
Eryonidae is a family of fossil decapod crustaceans which lived from the Upper Triassic to the Lower Cretaceous. It contains four genera: An aggregation of three unidentified eryonids was reported in 2012 inside a Late Jurassic ammonoid of the species Harpoceras falciferum; they represent the earliest evidence of gregarious behaviour in decapods.
Dakoticancroidea is a superfamily of fossil crabs divided into the following two families:
Longichela orobica is an extinct species of prawn which lived in the Norian, and is the only species in the genus Longichela.
Hepatus is a genus of crabs in the family Aethridae, containing seven extant species, plus some fossil species:
Campylonotoidea is a superfamily of shrimp, containing the two families Campylonotidae and Bathypalaemonellidae. Fenner A. Chace considered it to be the sister group to the much larger superfamily Palaemonoidea, with which it shares the absence of endopods on the pereiopods, and the fact that the first pereiopod is thinner than the second. Using molecular phylogenetics, Bracken et al. proposed that Campylonotoidea may be closer to Atyoidea. There are sixteen described species in 3 genera; no fossils are known.
Eryma is a genus of fossil lobster-like crustaceans, containing 44 species. Two were preserved in the Solnhofen Limestone in Germany. 42 rest of them were found worldwide oldest to youngest between the Jurassic.
