''Chilenophoberus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 that lived during the Oxfordian stage of the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

period in what is now Cordillera de Domeyko,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. The genus contains a single species, ''Chilenophoberus atacamensis''.

Discovery and naming

The only known remains of ''Chilenophoberus'' were collected from Cordillera de Domeyko,

. The

was erected in 1976 by Chong & Förster, with ''C. atacamensis'' as its type and only species. The generic name references its country of origin, Chile, and '' Acanthacaris'' (formerly known as ''Phoberus''), which it was once thought to be related to. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

refers to the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

Classification

In their original description of ''Chilenophoberus'', Chong & Förster (1976) recognized the taxon as a relative to ''

Pseudastacus ''Pseudastacus'' (meaning 'false ''Astacus'', in comparison to the extant crayfish genus) is an extinct genus of decapod crustaceans that lived during the Jurassic period in Europe, and possibly the Cretaceous period in Lebanon. Many species hav ...

'' and ''

Palaeophoberus ''Palaeophoberus'' is an extinct genus of decapod crustaceans that lived from the Aalenian to Tithonian stages of the Jurassic period. Its fossils have been found in Germany and France. Taxonomic history The first known fossils of ''Palaeophober ...

'', placing it in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Nephropidae Lobsters are malacostracans decapod crustaceans of the family Nephropidae or its synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, in ...

(which the latter two genera were also placed in at the time). This classification was followed until 1997, when

phylogenetic analysis In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...

carried out by Tshudy & Babcock found that these genera (as well as ''Tillocheles'') form a family separate from Nephropidae. They named this family Chilenophoberidae, with ''Chilenophoberus'' as its

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

. In 2013, Karasawa ''et al.'' declared that Chilenophoberidae was a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

grouping, with Stenochiridae nested within. Because Stenochiridae was named first, this name took priority and Chilenophoberidae became a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of it. The following

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 ...

shows the placement of ''Chilenophoberus'' within Stenochiridae according to the study:

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q123741920 Jurassic crustaceans Fossil taxa described in 1976