''Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica'' is a species of glypheoid lobster, and the only species in the genus ''Laurentaeglyphea''. It is known from a single specimen collected on a

guyot In marine geology, a guyot (pronounced ), also known as a tablemount, is an isolated underwater volcanic mountain ( seamount) with a flat top more than below the surface of the sea. The diameters of these flat summits can exceed .Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

. It is thought to be an active

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

with

colour vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of t ...

, unlike its nearest living relative, ''

Neoglyphea inopinata ''Neoglyphea inopinata'' is a species of glypheoid lobster, a group thought long extinct before ''Neoglyphea'' was discovered. It is a lobster-like animal, up to around in length, although without claws. It is only known from 17 specimens, cau ...

''.

Description

''Laurentaeglyphea'' is known from a single adult female specimen, with a carapace in size. In life, the animal is whitish and marked with red patches, especially on the abdomen and the distal segments of the first

pereiopod The decapod (crustaceans such as a crab, lobster, shrimp or prawn) is made up of 20 body segments grouped into two main body parts: the cephalothorax and the pleon (abdomen). Each segment may possess one pair of appendages, although in various g ...

s; the markings are much fainter on the carapace. ''Laurantaeglyphea'' has large

reniform Reniform is an adjective meaning "kidney-shaped" and may specifically refer to: * Reniform leaf The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single ...

(kidney-shaped) eyes, more developed in the lower half than the upper. The

epistome Stomotheca is the term applied to the feeding apparatus in front of the mouth of harvestmen, and sometimes the related scorpions. Usually it consists of the ''epistome'' ( labrum), two pairs of ''coxapophyses'' (endites, maxillary lobes) and often a ...

, behind the two pairs of antennae on the ventral side, is large, but considerably shorter than that of ''

Neoglyphea ''Neoglyphea inopinata'' is a species of glypheoid lobster, a group thought long extinct before ''Neoglyphea'' was discovered. It is a lobster-like animal, up to around in length, although without claws. It is only known from 17 specimens, cau ...

''. ''Laurantaeglyphea'' has five pairs of

s, all without true

chelae A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a pincer (biology), pincer-like organ at the end of certain limbs of some arthropods. The name comes from Ancient Greek , through New Latin '. The plural form is chelae. Legs bearing a chela are ...

(claws).

Distribution

The single known specimen of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' was collected at a depth of on Banc Capel (

Chesterfield Plateau Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituenc ...

; ) in the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

Ecology

The ecology of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' is very different from that of its closest living relative, ''

''. Banc Capel is a

guyot In marine geology, a guyot (pronounced ), also known as a tablemount, is an isolated underwater volcanic mountain ( seamount) with a flat top more than below the surface of the sea. The diameters of these flat summits can exceed .atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

with steep sides and a flat top – and is swept by strong currents. There are no sandy or muddy substrates, the surface being occupied by rocks or gravel

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ha ...

. It is dominated by

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

s, including the genus '' Phloedictyon'' and gorgonians. Other

decapods The Decapoda or decapods (literally "ten-footed") are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp and prawns. Most decapods are scavengers. The order is estim ...

found in the same trawls including the

slipper lobster Slipper lobsters are a family (Scyllaridae) of about 90 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda clade Reptantia, found in all warm oceans and seas. They are not true lobsters, but are more closely related to spiny lobsters and furry lo ...

Ibacus brucei ''Ibacus'' is a genus of slipper lobsters, including commercially important species such as the Balmain bug Balmain may refer to: Places * Balmain, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Electoral district of Balmain, an electoral divi ...

'', the crab ''

Randallia ''Randallia'' is a genus of true crabs in the family Leucosiidae Leucosiidae is a family of crabs containing three subfamilies and a number of genera ''incertae sedis'': ;Cryptocneminae Stimpson, 1907 * '' Cryptocnemus'' Stimpson, 1858 * '' ...

'' and swimming crabs. On the basis of its large eyes, ''Laurentaeglyphea'' is thought to be an active

, perhaps one with similar hunting behaviour to that of

stomatopod Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are carnivorous marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda (). Stomatopods branched off from other members of the class Malacostraca around 340 million years ago. Mantis shrimp typically grow to around in leng ...

s. The presence of patterned pigmentation on an animal that lives at a depth of around suggests that it does not live in a

burrow An Eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of sh ...

. In the clear waters of the Coral Sea, sufficient light penetrates to these depths for a wide range of colours to be represented among the fauna. The eyes of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' are thought to be adapted to

, even if it is biased towards the shorter

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...

s (blues and greens). The collected specimen of ''Laurentaeglyphea'' was observed to be very active and aggressive, using its semichelate first pereiopods to attack.

Taxonomy

''Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica'' was originally described by Bertrand Richer de Forges in 2006, on the basis of a single specimen (the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

). He named the species ''Neoglyphea neocaledonica'', where the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

' refers to

, the nearest land to the site where the holotype was collected. Later that year,

Jacques Forest Jacques Forest (14 June 1920 – 16 February 2012) was a French carcinologist. Biography Born in Créteil on 14 June 1920, Jacques Forest grew up in Maubeuge. He served in the army for a year during the Second World War, and went on to study a ...

erected the new genus ''Laurentaeglyphea'' for the new species, separating it from ''

'', the only other species in the genus ''Neoglyphea''. The genus name ''Laurentaeglyphea'' commemorates

Michèle de Saint Laurent Michèle de Saint Laurent (December 9, 1926 – July 11, 2003) was a French carcinologist. She spent most of her career at the ' in Paris, working on the systematics of Decapoda, decapod crustaceans; her major contributions were to hermit crabs an ...

, who had discovered and co-described the first Recent specimen of the infraorder Glypheidea. The two species of living glypheids are considered "

living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossi ...

s".

Notes

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18042439, from2=Q5499854 Glypheidea Monotypic arthropod genera