Family MACROCYPRIDIDAE Müller, 1912

Museums

Regional Maps

• Macrocyprididae Müller, G.W. 1912. Ostracoda. Das Tierreich 31: 1-434 [120].

  Type genus:

   Macrocypris Brady, 1869.

Introduction

Macrocyprididae is the only family of the superfamily Macrocypridoidea. Although globally ubiquitous in nearly all euhaline environments, the family is rarely represented at any one location by more than one or two species, and those species are never predominant, rarely being common constituents of the local podocopid ostracod fauna. The external morphology is remarkably constant, so much so that until 1960 a single genus was sufficient to accommodate almost the entire family. Macrocyprididae are solitary, sediment-ingesting bottom dwellers. They tend to be relatively large and include the largest known marine podocopid ostracods.

Diagnosis

Carapace relatively large, elongate, and smooth. Right valve overlaps left one on all free margins. The adductor scar group is fairly large, elongate-ovate in elongate species to nearly equal in subquadrate species. It consists of two groups: upper and lower, separated diagonally with open space. The upper group always consists of three scars in an arcuate row. The lower group consists of nine scars, arranged in a diagonally elongate oval. Anterior and posterior inner lamellae wide, fused zone wide, with irregular and branched pore canals. Female first thoracopod pediform with 4-segmented palp; male limb transformed in asymmetrical hooks. Third thoracopod with long, reflexed, feathered cleaning seta and two other smaller setae. Caudal ramus rod-shaped. Hemipenis less complex than in Cypridoidea. Zenker's organ with numerous chitinous spikes, not arranged in rosettes.

Diagnosis References

Maddocks, R.F. 1990. Living and fossil Macrocyprididae (Ostracoda). Lawrence, Kansas : The University of Kansas Vol. 2 pp. 1-404. [41]

History of changes