Family DARWINULIDAE Brady & Norman, 1889

Museums

Regional Maps

• Darwinulidae Brady, G.S. & Norman, A.M. 1889. A monograph of the marine and freshwater Ostracoda of the North Atlantic and of Northwestern Europe. Section I: Podocopa. Scientific Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society 4(2): 63-270 [346].

  Type genus:

   Darwinula Brady & Robertson, 1885.

Introduction

Darwinulidae are exclusively non-marine ostracods, but make up less than 5% of the total species diversity of extant non-marine ostracod faunas (Martens 1998). The suborder Darwinulocopina originated about 360 million years ago, but only the family Darwinulidae has survived until now (Martens et al. 1998). The family is most speciose in the Southern Hemisphere. There are 5 genera and ~30 species (Shon et. al., 2010).

Diagnosis

Carapace mostly 0.8 mm long or less, shape elongate subquadrate to oval. Valves smooth. Valve marginal zone with narrow calcified lamella, without selvage or continuous lists. Hinge adont. Adductor muscle scars: typical "rosette pattern". Normal pores simple. Female with a more or less inflated posterior brood space. Seven pairs of appendages. Caudal ramus absent or reduced to 1–2 short setae. Mandibular branchial plate small, maxillular one large. Fifth limb (first thoracopod) with 3-segmented endopodite, branchial plate with numerous rays. Sixth and seventh limbs walking legs.

Diagnosis References

Horne, D.J., Cohen, A. & Martens, K. 2002. Taxonomy, morphology and biology of Quaternary and living Ostracoda. Geophysical Monograph 131: 5-36

General References

Shon, I., Martens, K. & Halse, S. 2010. Genetic diversity in Australian ancient asexual Vestalenula (Ostracoda, Darwinulidae): little variability down under. Hydrobiologia 641: 59-70

History of changes