Natantia

Natantia

Natantia is an obsolete taxon of decapod crustaceans, comprising those families that move predominantly by swimming – the shrimp, prawns and boxer shrimp. The remaining Decapoda were placed in the Reptantia, and consisted of crabs, lobsters and other large animals that move chiefly by walking along the bottom.[1] The division between Natantia and Reptantia was replaced in 1963, when Martin Burkenroad erected the suborder Pleocyemata for those animals that brood their eggs on the pleopods, leaving Dendrobranchiata for the prawns.[1] Under this system, Natantia is a paraphyletic group. Burkenroad's primary division of Decapoda into Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata has since been corroborated by molecular analyses.[2]

Representatives of the three groups formerly placed in "Natantia"

Dendrobranchiata: Penaeus monodon
Caridea: Heterocarpus ensifer

References

  1. ^ a b Raymond T. Bauer (2004). Remarkable Shrimps: Adaptations and Natural History of the Carideans. Animal natural history series. 7. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780806135557. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=b8YHIsnod3EC&pg=PA206. 
  2. ^ Alicia Toon, Maegan Finley, Jeffrey Staples & Keith A. Crandall (2009). "Decapod phylogenetics and molecular evolution". In Joel W. Martin (PDF). Decapod Crustacean Phylogenetics. CRC Press. pp. 9–24. ISBN 9781420092585. http://crandalllab.byu.edu/Portals/20/docs/publications/Alicia%27sPaper.pdf.