Tanaidacea non det.

Tanaidacea non det.
Upper Cretaceous
Cenomanian / Turonian
Akrabou Formation
Gara es Sbâa
Agoult
Morocco
Length 8mm

Tanaidaceans are small benthic and rather odd looking, primitive crustaceans, rarely exceeding 10mm in length. Currently, around 1200 recent species are described but only 14 fossil species ranging from the Carboniferous to the Cretaceous are known. The only other Cretaceous tanaidea I am aware of is Ophthalmapseudes giganteus Malzahn, 1979.

This is a Protanais birsteini (Kudinova-Pasternak, 1970), a recent member of this family: