Checklist of fossil decapod crustaceans from tropical America. Part I: Anomura and Brachyura

Abstract

Our knowledge of fossil crustaceans from the tropics has increased considerably during recent decades, thanks to novel findings and the reexamination of museum specimens. However, several previous records have original arTiCle been misidentified, numerous museum specimens have never been reported, and many new discoveries are yet to be published. Here, we present a detailed, up-to-date, and revised checklist for every marine, terrestrial, or freshwater fossil decapod crustacean occurrence from tropical America known to us, including their age, geographic occurrences, and related literature. We recognize the occurrence of at least 32 superfamilies, 69 families, 190 genera, and 415 species of brachyurans ('true' crabs), and anomurans ('false' crabs, hermit crabs, squat lobsters, and allies), several of them previously unknown. The checklist comprises records from three main geographic regions: 1) northern South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela); 2) Central America and southern North America (Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Mexico, southern and central Florida); and 3) the Caribbean Islands + Bermuda (Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, The Grenadines, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Saint Bartélemy, Saint Martin, Trinidad). Previous findings, new occurrences, and the revised systematic placement for several problematic/misidentified records, indicate that the fossil record of anomurans and brachyurans in tropical America is more diverse than previously envisioned, with a considerable degree of endemism at the genus-and species-levels.

A Phylogenomic Framework, Evolutionary Timeline, and Genomic Resources for Comparative Studies of Decapod Crustaceans

“…Grapsoidea, Ocypodidea) is under suspicion from this and other molecular phylogenies [117,121], so the clade treated herein remains Thoracotremata. [124,130,131], but with limited specimen or stratigraphic information.…”

“…Membership on the stem-lineage of Inachidae tentatively confirms the ability to provide a minimum calibration for the crown Majoidea we have sampled. Late Cretaceous [124,139], Eocene [140,141], and Oligocene [142] putative majoids have been discovered with preserved carapaces, but they either fall outside of our molecular crown taxon sampling, or lack specimen information.…”

“…Although without sufficient confirmation, some older crown-group fossils most likely exist for Thoracotremata. There is a possible 'grapsoid' crab from midlate Paleocene sediments of Colombia (Luque et al 2017[124],Fig. 8J), but it has not yet received systematic study.…”

Archaeochiapasidae n. fam., a new early Cenomanian brachyuran family from Chiapas, Mexico, new hypothesis on Lecythocaridae Schweitzer & Feldmann, 2009, and phylogenetic implications (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Eubrachyura)

“…Telamonocarcinus antiquus Luque, 2015 (Luque 2015b: fig. 2A), from the upper Aptian-lower Albian of Colombia, only known by dorsal carapace with a concave posterior border (as in basal podotremes and Archaeochiapasa n. gen.) and a rough dorippoid aspect, may well represent the oldest known eubrachyuran (Luque et al 2017). Telamonocarcinus gambalatus Larghi, 2004, type species of the genus, from the Cenomanian of Lebanon (Fig.…”

“…, have been recognised by the establishment of a separate family within Dorippoidea, Goniochelidae (seeSchweitzer & Feldmann 2011), a widely accepted status(Jagt et al 2015; Luque 2015b: fig. 4;Luque et al 2017). The dorsal position of P4 and P5, evident from the disposition of their coxae, and the concave posterior margin of the carapace are plesiomorphic traits that are shared with Archaeochiapasidae n. fam.…”