Thaumastochelidae | |
---|---|
Thaumastocheles massonktenos | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
Superfamily: | Nephropoidea |
Family: |
Thaumastochelidae Bate, 1888 |
Genera | |
Thaumastocheles
Wood-Mason, 1874 |
The family Thaumastochelidae contains five known species of deep-sea lobsters, three in the genus Thaumastocheles, and two in the genus Thaumastochelopsis. The fifth species was discovered in the ten–year Census of Marine Life. [1] [2] These creatures are distinguished from other clawed lobsters by their blindness (an adaptation to deep-sea life), and by their single elongated, spiny chela. [3]
The family Thaumastochelidae is now more usually subsumed into the lobster family Nephropidae. [4]
The five species are as follows: