Spelaeogriphacea
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Mangkurtu |
Spelaeogriphacea is an order of crustaceans that grow to no more than 10 mm. Only four species, all subterranean, have been described. Of the three genera, Potiicoara is known only from a cave in Brazil's Matto Grosso, Spelaeogriphus only from a cave on Table Mountain in South Africa, and the two Mangkurtu species only from individual Australian aquifers. This widely separated distribution implies an early origin for the group, hypothesised as emerging at least 200 million years before present in the Tethys Sea around Gondwana. Little is known about the ecology of the order.
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