The Stenopodidea or boxer shrimps are a small group of

decapod The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, and p ...

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s. Often confused with Caridea shrimp or Dendrobranchiata prawns, they are neither, belonging to their own group.

Anatomy

They can be differentiated from the Dendrobranchiata prawns by their lack of branching

gills A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

, and by the fact that they brood their eggs instead of directly releasing them into the water. They differ from the Caridea shrimp by their greatly enlarged third pair of legs.

Taxonomy

Stenopodidea belongs to the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Decapoda The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, a ...

, and is most closely related to the

Caridea The Caridea, commonly known as caridean shrimp or true shrimp, from the Greek word καρίς, καρίδος (karís, karídos, “shrimp”), are an infraorder of shrimp within the order Decapoda. This infraorder contains all species of true sh ...

and Procarididea

infraorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classific ...

s of

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below shows Stenopodidea's relationships to other relatives within

, from analysis by Wolfe ''et al.'', 2019. There are 71 extant species currently recognized within Stenopodidea, divided into 12 genera. Three fossil species are also recognized, each belonging to a separate genus. The earliest fossil assigned to the Stenopodidea is '' Devonostenopus pennsylvaniensis'' from the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

. Until ''D. pennsylvaniensis'' was discovered, the oldest known member of the group was '' Jilinicaris chinensis'' from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

. The cladogram below shows Stenopodidea's internal relationships:
Stenopodidea comprises the following

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

and

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

: * †'' Dubiostenopus'' Alencar ''et al.'' 2023 * Macromaxillocarididae Alvarez, Iliffe & Villalobos, 2006 **'' Macromaxillocaris'' Alvarez, Iliffe & Villalobos, 2006 * Spongicolidae Schram, 1986 **'' Engystenopus'' Alcock & Anderson, 1894 **'' Globospongicola'' Komai & Saito, 2006 **†'' Jilinicaris'' Schram, Shen, Vonk & Taylor, 2000 **'' Microprosthema'' Stimpson, 1860 **'' Paraspongicola'' De Saint Laurent & Cléva, 1981 **'' Spongicola'' De Haan, 1844 **'' Spongicoloides'' Hansen, 1908 **'' Spongiocaris'' Bruce & Baba, 1973 * Stenopodidae Claus, 1872 **†'' Devonostenopus'' Jones ''et al.'', 2014 **'' Juxtastenopus'' Goy, 2010 **'' Odontozona'' Holthuis, 1946 **†''

Phoenice Phoenice or Phoenike () was an ancient Greek city in Epirus and capital of the Chaonians.: "To the north the Chaonians had expelled the Corcyraeans from their holdings on the mainland and built fortifications at Buthrotum, Kalivo and Kara-Ali- ...

'' Garassino, 2001 **'' Richardina'' A. Milne-Edwards, 1881 **'' Stenopus'' Latreille, 1819

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q932151 Arthropod infraorders Extant Late Devonian first appearances