Thaumastochelidae

The family Thaumastochelidae contains five known species of deep-sea lobsters, three in the genus Thaumastocheles, and two in the genus Thaumastochelopsis. The fifth species was discovered in the ten–year Census of Marine Life.[1][2] These creatures are distinguished from other clawed lobsters by their blindness (an adaptation to deep-sea life), and by their single elongated, spiny chela.[3]

Thaumastochelidae
Thaumastocheles massonktenos
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Superfamily: Nephropoidea
Family: Thaumastochelidae
Bate, 1888
Genera

Thaumastocheles Wood-Mason, 1874
Thaumastochelopsis Bruce, 1988

The family Thaumastochelidae is now more usually subsumed into the lobster family Nephropidae.[4]

The five species are as follows:

  • Thaumastocheles
    • Thaumastocheles dochmiodon Chan & de Saint Laurent, 1999 is found in the Timor Sea.
    • Thaumastocheles japonicus Calman, 1913, the "Pacific pincer lobster", is endemic to the Sea of Japan.
    • Thaumastocheles zaleucus Thomson, 1873, the "Atlantic pincer lobster" or "Atlantic deep-sea lobster", is endemic to the Caribbean region.
  • Thaumastochelopsis
    • Thaumastochelopsis brucei Ahyong, Chu & Chan, 2007 lives in the Coral Sea.
    • Thaumastochelopsis wardi Bruce, 1988, the "Australian pincer lobster", lives in the Coral Sea.

References
  1. "Image Gallery". Census of Marine Life. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  2. "Deep sea oddities and more from the Census of Marine Life". Fox News. 2009-11-23.
  3. A. J. Bruce (1988). "Thaumastochelopsis wardi, gen. et. sp. nov., a new blind deep-sea lobster from the coral sea (Crustacea : Decapoda : Nephropidea)" (PDF). Invertebrate Taxonomy. 2 (7): 903–914. doi:10.1071/it9880903.
  4. Tin-Yam Chan (2009). "Nephropidae Dana, 1852". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
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