| Spelaeogriphacea Temporal range: Lower Carboniferous – Recent |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Spelaeogriphacea Gordon, 1957 |
| Family: | Spelaeogriphidae Gordon, 1957 |
| Genera | |
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Spelaeogriphacea is an order of crustaceans that grow to no more than 10 millimetres (0.39 in). Little is known about the ecology of the order.[1]
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.[1] This widely separated distribution implies an early origin for the group, hypothesised as emerging at least 200 million years ago in the Tethys Sea around Gondwana.[1]
The fossil species Acadiocaris novascotica is also considered to belong to the Spelaeogriphacea.[2]