Family GLYPHEIDAE Winkler, 1881

Neoglyphea inopinata

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Family GLYPHEIDAE Winkler, 1881

Glyphaeidae Zittel, K.A., von 1885. Handbuch der Palaeontologie. 1 Abt. Palaeozoologie. Vol. 2, Mollusca and Arthropoda. München & Liepzig. 1-893, 719 figs pp. [689] [Zittel (1885) cited Winkler (1881) as the author of the name Glyphaeidae; Winkler recognised a relationship between several genera around the genus Glyphea, which he referred to as 'les glyphées', but this fails to constitute a formal family definition; Zittel used the incorrect spellings Glyphaea and Glyphaeidae (Holthuis 1991). More recently Schram (2014) and Poore (2016) help clarifying the correct authorship of the family].
Type genus:
Glyphea Meyer, 1835.
Secondary source:
Zittel, K.A., von 1885. Handbuch der Palaeontologie. 1 Abt. Palaeozoologie. Vol. 2, Mollusca and Arthropoda. München & Liepzig. 1-893, 719 figs pp. [689]; Holthuis, L.B. 1991. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 13. Marine lobsters of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species of interest to fisheries known to date. FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125, 13: i-viii, 1-292; Schram, F.R. 2014. [Book review] Charbonnier, S., A. Garassino, G. Schweigert, and M. Simpson. 2013. A worldwide review of fossil and extant glypheid and litogastrid lobsters (Crustacea, Decapoda, Glypheoidea). Mémoires du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle 28. Publications Scientifiques du Muséum, Paris. Journal of Crustacean Biology 34: 399-401 [400] (authorship).
Neoglypheidae Charbonnier, S., Garassino, A., Schweigert, G. & Simpson, M. 2013. A worldwide review of fossil and extant glypheid and litogastrid lobsters (Crustacea, Decapoda, Glypheoidea. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 205: 1–304 [29].
Type genus:
Neoglyphea Forest & de Saint Laurent, 1975.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

Introduction

The Glyphaeidae are lobster-like crustaceans, until recently believed to have been extinct for at least 38 million years. Glyphaeids first appeared in the Lower Triassic, flourished during the Jurassic, became less abundant in the Cretaceous, and then seemed to disappear during the Eocene (Forest et al. 1976); four fossil genera are recognised. In the mid-1970s a living species was discovered, from the South China Sea off the Philippines. It was described as a new species and genus, Neoglyphea inopinata Forest & de Saint Laurent, 1975. In 1988 a specimen of this very rare lobster was found in the Arafura Sea to the north of Australia (Bruce 1988).

Diagnosis

Carapace subcylindrical, with a median, longitudinal, suture line; cervical groove deep, arising laterally in front of the insertion of the mandible; branchio-cardiac grooves obvious; rostrum well developed; epistome prominent, exposed in lateral view, not separated from the precervical part of the carapace by a branchiostegal flap; male and female sternal structures identical, female without a thelycum differentiated; last thoracic sternite free; first article of the antennular peduncle free. Pereiopods 1–5 more or less subchelate; pereiopods 2–5 with basis and ischium not fused. Male first pleopods modified as gonopods, second pleopods with appendix masculina. Pleopods 2–5 with appendix interna equipped with retinacula. Telson with posterior border rounded. Exopodite of uropods separated into proximal and distal parts by transverse diaeresis. (After Forest & de Saint Laurent 1989: 88–89).