Potamonautidae 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 ...

freshwater crab Around 1,300 species of freshwater crabs are distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics, divided among eight families. They show direct development and maternal care of a small number of offspring, in contrast to marine crabs, which relea ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, including the islands of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

Pemba Pemba may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Pemba Island, in Tanzania * Pemba, Mozambique, the capital of Cabo Delgado Province * Pemba, Zambia, a small town Individuals * George Pemba, South African painter * Pemba (panda), a red panda * Tsewang Yishe ...

Bioko Bioko (; historically Fernando Po; bvb, Ëtulá Ëria) is an island off the west coast of Africa and the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea. Its population was 335,048 at the 2015 census and it covers an area of . The island is located of ...

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álva ...

Príncipe Príncipe is the smaller, northern major island of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of (including offshore islets) and a population of 7,324 at the 2012 Census;

and

Sherbro Island Sherbro Island is in the Atlantic Ocean, and is included within Bonthe District, Southern Province, Sierra Leone. The island is separated from the African mainland by the Sherbro River in the north and Sherbro Strait in the east. It is long a ...

. It comprises 18 extant

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

and 138 extant

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

remains dating from the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

period have been attributed to the family Potamonautidae. It comprises the following subfamilies and genera: ; Deckeniinae Ortmann, 1897 *'' Deckenia'' Hilgendorf, 1869 *'' Seychellum'' Ng, Števčić & Pretzmann, 1995 ; Hydrothelphusinae Bott, 1955 *'' Afrithelphusa'' Bott, 1969 *'' Boreas'' Cumberlidge & von Sternberg, 2002 *'' Globonautes'' Bott, 1959 *'' Hydrothelphusa'' A. Milne-Edwards, 1872 *'' Louisea'' Cumberlidge, 1994 *'' Madagapotamon'' Bott, 1965 *'' Malagasya'' Cumberlidge & von Sternberg, 2002 *''

Marojejy Marojejy National Park () is a national park in the Sava region of northeastern Madagascar. It covers and is centered on the Marojejy Massif, a mountain chain that rises to an elevation of . Access to the area around the massif was restricted ...

'' Cumberlidge, Boyko & Harvey, 2002 *'' Skelosophusa'' Ng & Takeda, 1994 ; Potamonautinae Bott, 1970 *'' Erimetopus'' Rathbun, 1894 *''

Foza Foza ( cim, VüschePatuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar' ur Words Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien) is a town in the p ...

'' Dai & Bo, 1994 *'' Liberonautes'' Bott, 1955 *''

Platythelphusa ''Platythelphusa'' is a genus of freshwater crabs endemism, endemic to Lake Tanganyika. It has been placed in a number of families, including a monotypic family (biology), family, Platythelphusidae, as well as Potamidae and its current position i ...

'' A. Milne-Edwards, 1887 *'' Potamonautes'' MacLeay, 1838 *'' Potamonemus'' Cumberlidge & P. F. Clark, 1992 *'' Sudanonautes'' Bott, 1955 *'' Tanzanonautes'' † Feldmann ''et al.'', 2007

References

Potamoidea Freshwater crustaceans of Africa Decapod families {{crab-stub