Spelaeogriphaceans are peracarid crustaceans occuring, with limited distributions, in fresh groundwaters of Gondwana plates: Africa, South America, Australia. At present three living species are known, viz.: Spelaeogriphus lepidops Gordon, 1957, Potiicoara brasiliensis Pires, 1987, Mangkurtu mityula Poore & Humphreys, 1998. Two fossil species, Acadiocaris novascotica and Liaoningogriphus quadripartitus , have been respectively described by Copeland (1957) from Carboniferous sediments in Canada, and by Yan-bin, Taylor & Schram (1998) from Upper Jurassic of China. On the left: Spelaeogriphus lepidops from Gordon (1957)

Spelaeogriphus Gordon, 1957 Potiicoara Pires, 1987 Mangkurtu Poore & Humphreys, 1998 Spelaeogriphus lepidops Gordon, 1957 [Table Mountain, South Africa; cave] Potiicoara brasiliensis Pires, 1987 [Mato Grosso, Brazil; cave] Mangkurtu mityula Poore & Humphreys, 1998 [Pilbara, Western Australia; Millstream aquifer] RELEVANT LITERATURE Gordon I. 1957. On Spelaeogriphus, a new cavernicolous crustacean from South Africa. Bull. British Mus. (Nat. Hist.), 5: 31-47. Pires A.M.S. 1987. Potiicoara brasiliensis: a new genus and species of Spelaeogriphacea (Crustacea: Peracarida) from Brazil, with a phylogenetic analysis of the Peracarida. J. Nat. Hist., London, 21: 225-238. Poore G.C. & W.F. Humphreys. 1998. First record of Spelaeogriphacea from Australasia: a new genus and species from an aquifer in the arid Pilbara of Western Australia. Crustaceana, 71 (7): 721-742. [Previous Page] [HomePage] [Feedback]