Thoracotremata is a clade of crabs, comprising those crabs in which the genital openings in both sexes are on the sternum, rather than on the legs. It comprises 17 families in four superfamilies .[1]

Thoracotremata
Leptograpsus variegatus, Grapsidae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Section: Eubrachyura
Subsection: Thoracotremata
Guinot, 1977
Families

See text

Evolution edit

Thoracotremata is the sister group to Heterotremata within the clade Eubrachyura, having diverged during the Cretaceous period. Eubrachyura itself is a subset of the larger clade Brachyura, which consists of all "true crabs". A summary of the high-level internal relationships within Brachyura can be shown in the cladogram below: [2][3]

Brachyura

The internal relationships within Thoracotremata are less certain, with many of the superfamilies found to be invalid. The proposed cladogram below is from analysis by Tsang et al, 2014:[2]

Superfamilies and families edit

However, recent studies have found the superfamilies Grapsoidea and Ocypodoidea to be polyphyletic and invalid.[2][3]

References edit

  1. ^ Sammy De Grave; N. Dean Pentcheff; Shane T. Ahyong; et al. (2009). "A classification of living and fossil genera of decapod crustaceans" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 21: 1–109.
  2. ^ a b c Ling Ming Tsang; Christoph D. Schubart; Shane T. Ahyong; Joelle C.Y. Lai; Eugene Y.C. Au; Tin-Yam Chan; Peter K.L. Ng; Ka Hou Chu (2014). "Evolutionary History of True Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura) and the Origin of Freshwater Crabs". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 31 (5). Oxford University Press : 1173–1187. doi:10.1093/molbev/msu068.
  3. ^ a b Wolfe, Joanna M.; Breinholt, Jesse W.; Crandall, Keith A.; Lemmon, Alan R.; Lemmon, Emily Moriarty; Timm, Laura E.; Siddall, Mark E.; Bracken-Grissom, Heather D. (24 April 2019). "A phylogenomic framework, evolutionary timeline and genomic resources for comparative studies of decapod crustaceans". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 286 (1901). doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.0079. PMC 6501934. PMID 31014217.