Cephalocarida

"Horseshoe shrimp" redirects here. For a species in this class known as the horseshoe shrimp, see Hutchinsoniella. For the horseshoe shrimp better known as tadpole shrimp or shield shrimp, see Notostraca.

Cephalocarida
Temporal range: 462–0 Ma
Hutchinsoniella macracantha
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Cephalocarida
Sanders, 1955
Order: Brachypoda
Birshteyn, 1960
Family: Hutchinsoniellidae
Sanders, 1955
Genera
Synonyms
  • Lightiellidae Jones 1961

The Cephalocarida are a class in the subphylum Crustacea comprising only 12 species. Both the nauplii and the adults are benthic.[1] They were discovered in 1955 by Howard L. Sanders,[2] and are commonly referred to as horseshoe shrimp. They have been grouped together with the Remipedia in the Xenocarida. Although a second family, Lightiellidae, is sometimes used, all cephalocaridans are generally considered to belong in just one family: Hutchinsoniellidae. Fossil records of cephalocaridans have been found in the Ordovician Castle Bank site.[3]

  1. ^ Key for the identification of crustacean nauplii - GfBS
  2. ^ Howard L. Sanders (1955). "The Cephalocarida, a new subclass of Crustacea from Long Island Sound". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 41 (1): 61–66. Bibcode:1955PNAS...41...61S. doi:10.1073/pnas.41.1.61. JSTOR 89010. PMC 528024. PMID 16589618.
  3. ^ Welsh fossils uncover an ancient 'marine dwarf world'