Thamnocephalidae is a family 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 can ...

s with wide distribution including

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. It was originally described as a subfamily of Branchipodidae by

Alpheus Spring Packard Alpheus Spring Packard Jr. LL.D. (February 19, 1839 – February 14, 1905) was an American entomologist and palaeontologist. He described over 500 new animal species – especially butterflies and moths – and was one of the founders of ''The A ...

in 1883, and elevated to the rank of

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

by Simon in 1886. Six genera are recognised, in two subfamilies: ;Thamnocephalinae *'' Thamnocephalus'' Packard, 1879 *'' Carinophallus'' Rogers, 2006 ;Branchinellinae *'' Dendrocephalus'' Daday, 1908 *'' Phallocryptus'' Birabén, 1951 *'' Spiralifrons'' Dixon, 2010 *'' Branchinella'' Sayce, 1903

References

Anostraca Crustacean families Taxa named by Alpheus Spring Packard {{branchiopoda-stub