Family PONTOCYPRIDIDAE Müller, 1894

Museums

Regional Maps

• Pontocyprididae Müller, G.W. 1894. Die Ostracoden des Golfes von Neapel und der Angrenzenden Meeres-Abschnitte. Naples : Sta. Zool. Fauna Flora Golfes Neapel, Monographie Vol. 21 pp. 1-404. [246].

  Type genus:

   Pontocypris Sars, 1866.

  Secondary source:

   Maddocks, R.F. 1969. Recent Ostracodes of the Family Pontocyprididae chiefly from the Indian Ocean. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology No. 7: 1-56 [10].

Introduction

The family is exclusively marine. Although it is perhaps the most abundantly represented and diverse podocopid group in marine assemblages, it is also the least documented.

Diagnosis

Carapace varying from subtriangular to nearly oval in lateral view; surface smooth, muscular pattern a cluster of five discrete scars, normal pore canals numerous and tiny; hinge simple. First thoracopod without respiratory plate, 3-segmented and subpediform in female, in male transformed into hook-shaped clasping organs. Terminal segment of third thoracopod with three unequal setae, one pectinate. Dorsal margin of third thoracopod with 2 or 3 cuspate projections. Caudal ramus well developed with 2 terminal claw and four slender setae. Zenker's organ very simple tubular structures with swollen ends without whorls of chitinous spikes.

Diagnosis References

Maddocks, R.F. 1969. Recent Ostracodes of the Family Pontocyprididae chiefly from the Indian Ocean. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology No. 7: 1-56 [10]

History of changes