Pleocyemata
Suborder of crustaceans
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Through Fertilisation and Fossil
Anatomy
All members of the Pleocyemata are united by a number of features, the most important of which is that the fertilised eggs are incubated by the female, and remain stuck to the pleopods (swimming legs) until the zoea larvae are ready to hatch. It is this characteristic that gives the group its name. Pleocyemata also possess a lamellar gill structure as opposed to the branches found in the Dendrobranchiata.
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Systematics
The cladogram below shows Pleocyemata as the sister clade to Dendrobranchiata within the larger order Decapoda, from analysis by Wolfe et al., 2019.
Pleocyemata comprises the following infraorders:
- Stenopodidea (stenopodidean shrimp)
- Caridea (caridean shrimp)
- Procarididea
- Achelata (spiny, slipper, and furry lobsters)
- Polychelida (benthic crustaceans)
- Glypheidea (glypheoid lobsters)
- Astacidea (true lobsters, reef lobsters, and crayfish)
- Axiidea (mud lobsters and ghost shrimp)
- Gebiidea (mud lobsters and mud shrimp)
- Anomura (squat lobsters, hermit crabs, and relatives)
- Brachyura (true crabs)
The earliest fossil representative is the Devonian Palaeopalaemon.