Triops cancriformis

Triops cancriformis
Triops cancriformis Nauplien
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Branchiopoda
Order: Notostraca
Family: Triopsidae
Genus: Triops
Species:
T. cancriformis
Binomial name
Triops cancriformis
(Bosc, 1801) [1]
The rough range of Triops cancriformis

Triops cancriformis, European tadpole shrimp or tadpole shrimp is a species of tadpole shrimp found in Europe to the Middle East and India.[2]

Due to habitat destruction, many populations have recently been lost across its European range, so, the species is considered endangered in the United Kingdom and in several European countries.[2] In captivity they commonly grow up to 6 centimetres (2.4 in); in the wild they can achieve sizes of 11 cm (4.3 in).[2]

In the UK, there are just two known populations: in a pool and adjacent area in the Caerlaverock Wetlands in Scotland, and a temporary pond in the New Forest.[3] The species is legally protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended).[4]

In the past, fossils from the Lower Triassic of France and Upper Triassic of Germany have been attributed to this species, with some even described as specimens of the subspecies T. c. minor, but later research reassigned all of these Triassic specimens to different extinct taxa of uncertain taxonomic family: the notostracan Apudites antiquus and the diplostracans Olesenocaris galli and Grauvogelocaris alsatica.[5] The putative Lower Permian subspecies from France has also been redescribed as a separate notostracan taxon, Heidiops permiensis.[6] Genetic evidence indicates that T. cancriformis only diverged from other Triops species around 23.7–49.6 million years ago.[7]

  1. ^ "Triops cancriformis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. ^ a b c "Tadpole shrimp - Triops cancriformis". ARKive. Archived from the original on 2008-10-07. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  3. ^ "Triops, the 300 million year-old living fossil". Planet Earth online. 22 December 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-07-05. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
  4. ^ "Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981". Legislation.gov.uk.
  5. ^ Geyer, Gerd; Hegna, Thomas A.; Kelber, Klaus-Peter (2024). "The end of the 'living fossil' tale? A new look at Triassic specimens assigned to the tadpole shrimp Triops cancriformis (Notostraca) and associated phyllopods from the Vosges region (eastern France)". Papers in Paleontology. 10 (5). e1589. doi:10.1002/spp2.1589.
  6. ^ Werneburg, R.; Schneider, J. W. (2023). "New branchiopod crustaceans from the late Carboniferous and early Permian of the Thuringian Forest Basin, Germany, with a review of Permian notostracans from the Lodève basin, France". Semana. 37: 57–103.
  7. ^ Korn, Michael; Rabet, Nicolas; Ghate, Hemant V.; Marrone, Federico; Hundsdoerfer, Anna K. (December 2013). "Molecular phylogeny of the Notostraca". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 69 (3): 1159–1171. Bibcode:2013MolPE..69.1159K. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.08.006. hdl:10447/83883. PMID 23973879.