''Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica'' is a species of glypheoid lobster, and the only species in the genus ''Laurentaeglyphea''. It is known from a single specimen collected on a

guyot In marine geology, a guyot (), also called a tablemount, is an isolated underwater volcanic mountain (seamount) with a flat top more than below the surface of the sea. The diameters of these flat summits can exceed . Guyots are most commonly fo ...

in the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

. It is thought to be an active

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

with

colour vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different frequencies independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of the larger visual system and is mediated by a co ...

, unlike its nearest living relative, ''

Neoglyphea inopinata ''Neoglyphea inopinata'' is a species of glypheoid lobster, a group thought long extinct before ''Neoglyphea'' was discovered. It is a lobster-like animal, up to around in length, although without claws. It is only known from 17 specimens, caug ...

''.

Description

''Laurentaeglyphea'' is known from a single adult female specimen, with a carapace in size. In life, the animal is whitish and marked with red patches, especially on the abdomen and the distal segments of the first

pereiopod The anatomy of a decapod consists of 20 body segments grouped into two main body parts: the cephalothorax and the pleon (abdomen). Each segment – often called a somite – may possess one pair of appendages, although in various groups these m ...

s; the markings are much fainter on the carapace. ''Laurantaeglyphea'' has large

reniform Reniform is an adjective meaning "kidney-shaped". It may refer to: * Reniform habit, a type of crystal shape * Reniform leaf, a plant leaf shape * Reniform seed, a plant seed shape * Reniform stigma, a spot on the wings of certain moths See ...

(kidney-shaped) eyes, more developed in the lower half than the upper. The epistome, behind the two pairs of antennae on the ventral side, is large, but considerably shorter than that of '' Neoglyphea''. ''Laurantaeglyphea'' has five pairs of

s, all without true

chelae A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a pincer-shaped organ at the end of certain limbs of some arthropods. The name comes from Ancient Greek , through Neo-Latin '. The plural form is chelae. Legs bearing a chela are called chelipeds ...

(claws).

Distribution

The single known specimen of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' was collected at a depth of on Banc Capel ( Chesterfield Plateau; ) in the

Ecology

The ecology of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' is very different from that of its closest living relative, ''

''. Banc Capel is a

– a former

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

with steep sides and a flat top – and is swept by strong currents. There are no sandy or muddy substrates, the surface being occupied by rocks or gravel

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. The term ''scree'' is ap ...

. It is dominated by

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s, including the genus '' Phloedictyon'' and gorgonians. Other

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

found in the same trawls including the

slipper lobster Slipper lobsters are a family (biology), family (Scyllaridae) of about 90 species of Achelata, achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda clade Reptantia, found in all warm oceans and seas. They are not lobster, true lobsters, but are more closely rel ...

'' Ibacus brucei'', the crab '' Randallia'' and swimming crabs. On the basis of its large eyes, ''Laurentaeglyphea'' is thought to be an active

, perhaps one with similar hunting behaviour to that of stomatopods. The presence of patterned pigmentation on an animal that lives at a depth of around suggests that it does not live in a

burrow file:Chipmunk-burrow (exits).jpg, An eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of Animal lo ...

. In the clear waters of the Coral Sea, sufficient light penetrates to these depths for a wide range of colours to be represented among the fauna. The eyes of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' are thought to be adapted to

, even if it is biased towards the shorter

wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

s (blues and greens). The collected specimen of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' was observed to be very active and aggressive, using its semichelate first pereiopods to attack.

Taxonomy

''Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica'' was originally described by Bertrand Richer de Forges in 2006, on the basis of a single specimen (the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

). He named the species ''Neoglyphea neocaledonica'', where the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

' refers to

, the nearest land to the site where the holotype was collected. Later that year, Jacques Forest erected the new genus ''Laurentaeglyphea'' for the new species, separating it from ''

'', the only other species in the genus ''Neoglyphea''. The genus name ''Laurentaeglyphea'' commemorates Michèle de Saint Laurent, who had discovered and co-described the first Recent specimen of the infraorder Glypheidea. The two species of living glypheids are considered "

living fossil A living fossil is a Deprecation, deprecated term for an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of or ...

s".

Notes

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18042439, from2=Q5499854 Glypheidea Monotypic decapod genera Taxa named by Jacques Forest