Lebanon Slipper Lobster

Taxonomy

Slipper Lobster

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca Latreille 1802
Order: Decapoda Latreille 1802
Family: Scyllaridae sensu lato
Genus: Paracancrinos?
Species: indet.

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Mesozoic
Period: Cretaceous
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Late
International Age: Cenomanian / Turonian

Stratigraphy

Sannine Formation

Provenance

Acquired by: Purchase/Trade

Dimensions

Length: 6.6 cm
Width: 5.7 cm
Height: 0.9 cm

Location

Haqil
Lebanon

• cretaceous
• lebanon
• slipper lobster

Comments

A fossil of a slipper lobster covered in dendrites associated with a shrimp and a fish (Gaudryella gaudryi). One can see that it is a slipper lobster due to the flattened antennas (antennules) found above the carapace. For this reason, slipper lobster are actually more related to the spiny lobsters and furry lobsters, with all three being in the infraorder Achelata. This specimen looks most similar to the recently described species of slipper lobster called Paracancrinos libanensis (Haug) due to its rectangular shape, however I am not sure if it should be labeled as such due to it being much less stocky than P. libanensis and it appearing narrower and longer. The carapace also seems longer in proportion to the abdomen than as described to be in P. libanensis. The antennules (the flattened claw like element) are petaloid in this specimen just like in P. libanensis, however this specimen has much rounder and shorter antennules than P. libanensis. This specimen does not appear to be the seemingly only other described slipper lobsters that I know of in Cretaceous Lebanon, Charbelicaris maronites (Haug), Palibacus praecursor (Dames 1886) and Acanthophoenicides peterpani (Denis) as those three are much more stockier and rounder in appearance, those three species seem to seemingly be more superficially be similiar to modern day slipper lobster. This specimen may just be a variation of P. libanensis, I'd be glad to hear your opinion on the matter.

 

Citations

 

Dames, W. (1886): Über einige Crustaceen aus den Kreideablagerungen des Libanon. - Z. dt. geol. Ges. 38: 551-575, Taf. 13-15; Berlin.

 

Denis Audo, Sylvain Charbonnier; New Nisto of Slipper Lobster (Decapoda: Scyllaridae) from the Hadjoula Lagerstätte (Late Cretaceous, Lebanon), Journal of Crustacean Biology, Volume 32, Issue 4, 1 July 2012, Pages 583–590, https://doi.org/10.1163/193724012X634189

 

Haug, J.T., et al., The evolution of a key character, or how to evolve a slipper lobster, Arthropod Structure & Development (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asd.2015.08.003