Cyzicidae is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s in the order
Spinicaudata
Clam shrimp are a group of bivalved branchiopod crustaceans that resemble the unrelated bivalved molluscs. They are extant and also known from the fossil record, from at least the Devonian period and perhaps before. They were originally classifi ...
.
They are distinguished from the family
Leptestheriidae
Leptestheriidae is a family of crustaceans in the order Spinicaudata. They are distinguished from the family Cyzicidae by the presence of a rostral
Rostral may refer to:
Anatomy
* Rostral (anatomical term), situated toward the oral or nasal re ...
by the absence of a
rostral spine.
Some members of Cyzicidae are known to burrow through mud, leading to speculation that they may be
filter feeder
Filter feeders are a sub-group of suspension feeding animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure. Some animals that use this method of feedin ...
s, but Martin reports that their
mouthparts are indistinguishable from Leptestheriidae, which are believed to be grazers.
The family contains four extant genera:
* ''
Caenestheria''
* ''
Caenestheriella''
* ''
Cyzicus
Cyzicus (; grc, Κύζικος ''Kúzikos''; ota, آیدینجق, ''Aydıncıḳ'') was an ancient Greek town in Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peni ...
''
* ''
Eocyzicus''
References
Spinicaudata
Crustacean families
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