BRACHYURAN DECAPOD CRUSTACEA FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF LEBANON

• Published in: Journal of paleontology 2004-05, Vol.78 (3), p.528-541
• Main Author: LARGHI, CRISTIANO
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Arthropoda; Asia; biologic evolution; Brachyura; Cenomanian age; Corazzatocarcinus; Crabs; Cretaceous; Crustacea; Crustaceans; Fossils; Genera; Geology; Homolopsis; Invertebrata; invertebrate; Lebanon; Malacostraca; Mandibulata; Mesozoic; Middle East; morphology; New genus; New species; new taxa; Paleontology; Sternum; taxonomy; Telamonocarcinus; type specimens; Upper Cretaceous; western Lebanon
• ISSN: 0022-3360; 1937-2337
• DOI: 10.1666/0022-3360(2004)078<0528:BDCFTU>2.0.CO;2

A rich collection of Brachyura from the famous Cenomanian “Fish Beds” of western Lebanon has permitted the reevaluation of several families of decapod crustaceans during an important period of their evolution. The new subfamily Telamonocarcininae is erected to include the most primitive known dorippids, which possess a rostrate carapace and a mixture of characters present in the two modern subfamilies Dorippinae MacLeay, 1838 and Ethusinae Guinot, 1977. Telamonocarcininae new subfamily includes the three genera, Telamonocarcinus new genus, EodorippeGlaessner, 1980b, and Tepexicarcinus Feldmann, Vega, Applegate, and Bishop, 1998. Telamonocarcinus n. gen. exhibits the last two pair of pereiopods reduced and carried in a subdorsal and/or dorsal position. The new genus Corazzatocarcinus, belonging to the Necrocarcinidae Förster, 1968, is here erected; C. hadjoulae (Roger, 1946) n. comb., the type species of the genus, is redescribed and a lectotype is here selected. The observation of preserved pereiopods, especially the reduced and dorsal last pairs, in many specimens of C. hadjoulae, together with new interpretations of already published data, has permitted questionable placement of the Necrocarcinidae in the Podotremata sensu Guinot and Tavares, 2001. The discovery of a specimen attributed to Homolopsis aff. edwardsiiBell, 1863 adds to the understanding of the anatomy and distribution of Cretaceous homolids, seldom reported in Southern Tethys deposits.