Mictacea

Mictacea
Mictocaris halope
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Superorder:	Peracarida
Order:	Mictacea Bowman, Garner, Hessler, Iliffe & Sanders, 1985 [1]
Families
Mictocarididae

Mictacea is a monotypic order of crustaceans. It was originally erected for three species of small shrimp-like animals of the deep sea and anchialine caves.[2] They were placed in two families, the Mictocarididae and Hirsutiidae,[1][2] but Hirsutiidae is now placed in order Bochusacea,[3] leaving Mictacea with a single species, Mictocaris halope.[4]

Description

Mictaceans have a brood pouch (marsupium) and biramous thoracic limbs, but lack a carapace.[5] They have eyestalks but "no functioning visual elements".[6]

History

The existence of animals resembling the Mictacea had been predicted by Frederick Schram in the early 1980s. Two groups of scientists independently discovered the animals in 1985, and, once they learnt of each other's work, agreed to work together on the paper describing the new order.[7]

Species

A single species is recognised:

Mictocarididae Bowman & Iliffe, 1985

• Mictocaris halope Bowman & Iliffe, 1985

References

1. J. W. Martin & G. E. Davis (2001). An Updated Classification of the Recent Crustacea (PDF). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. pp. 1–132.
2. J. K. Lowry & M. Yerman. "Mictacea". crustacea.net. Australian Museum. Archived from the original on May 8, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2007.
3. WoRMS. "Hirsutiidae". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
4. WoRMS. "Mictocaris halope Bowman & Iliffe, 1985". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
5. Matthew A. Wills (2001). "Morphological disparity: a primer". In Jonathan M. Adrain; Gregory D. Edgecombe; Bruce S. Lieberman (eds.). Fossils, Phylogeny, and Form: an Analytical Approach. Topics in geobiology. Springer. pp. 55–144. ISBN 978-0-306-46721-9.
6. Olav Giere (2009). "Meiofauna taxa: a systematic account". Meiobenthology: the Microscopic Motile Fauna of Aquatic Sediments (2nd ed.). Springer. pp. 103–234. doi:10.1007/b106489 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-3-540-68657-6.
7. Thomas E. Bowman; Susan P. Garner; Robert R. Hessler; Thomas M. Iliffe; Howard L. Sanders (1985). "Mictacea, a new order of Crustacea Peracarida". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 5 (1): 74–78. doi:10.2307/1548221. JSTOR 1548221.