Furry lobsters | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Subphylum: | Crustacea |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Infraorder: | Achelata |
Family: | Palinuridae (or Synaxidae) |
Genera and Species | |
Palinurellus gundlachi |
Furry lobsters (sometimes called coral lobsters) are small decapod crustaceans, closely related to the slipper lobsters and spiny lobsters.[1] The antennae are not as enlarged as in spiny and slipper lobsters, and the body is covered in short hairs, hence the name furry lobster. Although previously considered a family in their own right (Synaxidae Bate, 1881), the furry lobsters were subsumed into the family Palinuridae in 1990,[2] and molecular phylogenies support the inclusion of the furry lobsters in the family Palinuridae.[1] There are two genera, with three species between them:[3]