Remipedia

Remipedia
Temporal range: Lower Pennsylvanian–Recent
Speleonectes tanumekes
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Remipedia
J. Yager, 1981
Orders & families

Enantiopoda †

Nectiopoda

  • Godzilliidae
  • Micropacteridae
  • Speleonectidae

Remipedia is a class of blind crustaceans found in coastal aquifers which contain saline groundwater, with populations identified in almost every ocean basin so far explored, including in Australia, the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean. The first described remipede was the fossil Tesnusocaris goldichi (Lower Pennsylvanian), but, since 1979, at least seventeen living species have been identified with global distribution throughout the neo-tropical zone.[1]

Description

Remipedes are 10–40 millimetres (0.4–1.6 in) long and comprise a head and an elongate trunk of up to forty-two similar body segments.[2] The swimming appendages are lateral on each segment, and the animals swim on their backs. They are generally slow-moving. They have fangs connected to secretory glands; it is still unknown whether these glands secrete digestive juices or venom, or whether remipedes feed primarily on detritus or on living organisms. They have a generally primitive body plan in crustacean terms, and have been thought to be a basal, ancestral crustacean group. However, Fanenbruck et al. showed that at least one species, Godzilliognomus frondosus, has a highly organized and well-differentiated brain, with a particularly large olfactory area which is a common feature for species that live in dark environments.[3]

Classification

The class Remipedia was erected in 1981 by Jill Yager, in describing Speleonectes lucayensis from the Bahamas.[4] The name "Remipedia" is from the Latin remipedes, meaning "oar-footed".[4] Remipedia is grouped together with Cephalocarida to form the clade Xenocarida.[5] Besides Cephalocarida, the closest relatives of remipedes are probably the Hexapoda (insects and allies), confirming the Pancrustacea hypothesis and the paraphyly of Crustacea.[5][6]

Twenty-four extant species are currently recognised, divided among three families.[7] All are placed in the order Nectiopoda; the second order, Enantiopoda, comprises the fossil species Tesnusocaris goldichi and Cryptocaris hootchi.[1]

Godzilliidae

Micropacteridae

Speleonectidae

Distribution of extant Remipedia

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stefan Koenemann, Frederick R. Schram, Mario Hönemann, & Thomas M. Iliffe (2007). "Phylogenetic analysis of Remipedia (Crustacea)". Organisms Diversity & Evolution 7 (1): 33–51. doi:10.1016/j.ode.2006.07.001.
  2. ↑ Cameron McCormick (November 10, 2008). "Remipedia". The Lord Geekington.
  3. ↑ Martin Fanenbruck, Steffen Harzsch & Johann Wolfgang Wägele (2004). "The brain of the Remipedia (Crustacea) and an alternative hypothesis on their phylogenetic relationships". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101 (11): 3868–3873. doi:10.1073/pnas.0306212101.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jill Yager (1981). "Remipedia, a new class of Crustacea from a marine cave in the Bahamas". Journal of Crustacean Biology 1 (3): 328–333. JSTOR 1547965.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bjoern M. von Reumont, Ronald A. Jenner, Matthew A. Wills, Emiliano Dell'Ampio, Günther Pass, Ingo Ebersberger, Benjamin Meyer, Stefan Koenemann, Thomas M. Iliffe, Alexandros Stamatakis, Oliver Niehuis, Karen Meusemann & Bernhard Misof (2012). "Pancrustacean phylogeny in the light of new phylogenomic data: support for Remipedia as the possible sister group of Hexapoda". Molecular Biology and Evolution 29 (3): 1031–1045. doi:10.1093/molbev/msr270. PMID 22049065.
  6. ↑ Jerome C. Regier, Jeffrey W. Shultz, Andreas Zwick, April Hussey, Bernard Ball, Regina Wetzer, Joel W. Martin & Clifford W. Cunningham (2010). "Arthropod relationships revealed by phylogenomic analysis of nuclear protein-coding sequences". Nature 463 (7284): 1079–1083. doi:10.1038/nature08742. PMID 20147900.
  7. ↑ Stefan Koenemann. "World Remipedia Database". Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  8. ↑ Dennis Hazerli, Stefan Koenemann & Thomas M. Iliffe (2010). "Cryptocorynetes elmorei, a new species of Remipedia (Crustacea) from an anchialine cave on Eleuthera, Bahamas". Marine Biodiversity 40 (2): 71–78. doi:10.1007/s12526-009-0033-4.
  9. ↑ Yager, J. 2013: Speleonectes cokei, new species of Remipedia (Crustacea: Speleonectidae) from a submerged ocean cave near Caye Chapel, Belize. Zootaxa, 3710(4): 354-362. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3710.4.4
  10. ↑ Marco T. Neiber, Finja C. Hansen, Thomas M. Iliffe, Brett C. Gonzalez & Stefan Koenemann (2012). "Molecular taxonomy of Speleonectes fuchscockburni, a new pseudocryptic species of Remipedia (Crustacea) from an anchialine cave system on the Yucatán Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico" (PDF EXCERPT). Zootaxa 3190: 31–46.
  11. ↑ Tamara R. Hartke, Stefan Koenemann & Jill Yager (2011). "Speleonectes williamsi, a new species of Remipedia (Crustacea) from the Bahamas" (PDF EXCERPT). Zootaxa 3115: 21–28.

External links