A fossil tanaidacean crustacean from the Middle Jurassic of southern Germany

New species of Tanaidacea from Cretaceous Kachin amber, with a brief review of the fossil record of tanaidacean crustaceans

“…Abbreviations: Aa: Álava amber, B: body (except of appendages), Ba: La Buzinie amber, Ca: Charentese Amber, Ct: functional head ("cephalothorax"), Ka: Kachin amber, Pa: Pyrenean amber, Pl: pleon, Pl1-5: pleon segments 1-5, T: anterior trunk (free thorax), Ts: anterior trunk segments, Ts3-8: trunk segments 3-8, Va: Vendean amber. (Schädel et al 2019). Still, there are some variances, like Armadillopsis rara from Pyrenean Amber of France, which has a shorter anterior trunk in relation to the pleon, and the new Kachin fossils described here in which the last trunk segment is shorter than the previous ones.…”

“…Still, it was interpreted as an apseudomorphan-type tanaidacean due to the combination of: 1) presence of antero-lateral processes in the anterior trunk segments, and 2) presence of lateral protrusions in the pleon segments (tergopleura). These two characters in combination are found only in extant apseudomorphan-type tanaidaceans (Schädel et al 2019). Unfortunately, there is no preservation of the appendages of Palaeotanais quenstedti.…”

Pygocephalomorphan crustaceans further emphasise the similarities between the Carboniferous Piesberg quarry in Germany and the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte in North America

“…Otherwise, ingroups of Peracarida such as Isopoda, Lophogastrida, and Spelaeogriphacea apparently rose during the Pennsylvanian (Figure 11C). For Tanaidacea, there is one record for the Mississippian and one for the Pennsylvanian (Appendix 4-6), and several records in the Mesozoic (Schädel et al, 2019).…”

A new genus and species of Tanaidacea (Crustacea, Apseudomorpha) from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) of Gara Sbaa, southeastern Morocco

“…Indeed, finding of fossil tanaidaceans are therefore usually isolated remains or fragmentary body parts. According to Shädel et al, (2019) "the identification of isolated parts or fragmentary fossils is challenging in various aspects and many remains of tanaidaceans are probably not recognized as such".…”

“…Currently, there are 30 formally described fossil species of tanaidaceans, extending from the Lower Carboniferous to the Miocene (Shädel et al, 2019;Heard et al, 2018). Most of these species are known from inclusions in amber of the Cretaceous (Albian to Turonian) and Neogene (Vonk and Schram, 2007;Sánchez-García et al, 2015, 2016, 2017Heard et al, 2018) whereas the remaining fossils come from non-amber sites.…”