Munidopsidae is a family of

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

belonging to the order

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 ...

. The Munidopsids are the deepest-dwelling family of

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Galatheoidea The Galatheoidea are a superfamily of decapod crustaceans comprising the porcelain crabs and some squat lobsters. Squat lobsters within the three families of the superfamily Chirostyloidea are not closely related to the squat lobsters within th ...

, which comprises families

Galatheidae The Galatheidae are a family of squat lobsters. Genera There are 11 living genera and 7 extinct genera in the family Galatheidae: *† '' Acanthogalathea'' Müller & Collins, 1991 – Upper Eocene * '' Alainius'' Baba, 1991 * '' Allogalathea'' ...

Munididae Munididae is a family of squat lobsters, taxonomically separated from the family Galatheidae in 2010. Description and ecology The squat lobsters in the family Munididae can be distinguished from other families by the presence of a trispinose f ...

, Munidopsidae, and Porcellanidae. Munidopsids are one of the most common types 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 ...

found in abyssal zones, and have been found occupying active

hydrothermal vents Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hots ...

and

cold seeps A cold seep (sometimes called a cold vent) is an area of the ocean floor where seepage of fluids rich in hydrogen sulfide, methane, and other hydrocarbons occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. ''Cold'' does not mean that the temperature o ...

. Munidopsids reside from slope to abyssal floor, save for the

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

''M. polymorpha,'' which can be found in submarine caves as shallow as 2 meters below sea level. They are commonly referred to as

squat lobsters Squat lobsters are dorsoventrally flattened crustaceans with long tails held curled beneath the cephalothorax. They are found in the two superfamilies Galatheoidea and Chirostyloidea, which form part of the decapod infraorder Anomura, alongside g ...

. As of 2008, 224 species of Munidopsids have been catalogued: 71 in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, 132 in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

, and 50 in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

Genera

Genera: *'' Galacantha'' A. Milne-Edwards, 1880 *''

Janetogalathea ''Janetogalathea californiensis'' is a species of squat lobster in the monotypic genus ''Janetogalathea'' in the family Galatheidae The Galatheidae are a family of squat lobsters. Genera There are 11 living genera and 7 extinct genera in t ...

'' Baba & Wicksten, 1997 *'' Leiogalathea'' Baba, 1969 *''

Munidopsis ''Munidopsis'' is a genus of squat lobster. It is the second largest of all the genera of squat lobsters, after ''Munida'', with over 200 species. Its members are mainly found on continental slopes and on abyssal plains. A few fossil species are ...

'' Whiteaves, 1874 *'' Shinkaia'' Baba & Williams, 1998

References

Anomura Decapod families {{Squat-lobster-stub