Spelaeogriphaceans are peracarid crustaceans occuring, with limited distributions, in fresh groundwaters of Gondwana plates: Africa, South America, Australia. At present three living species are known, viz.: Spelaeogriphus lepidops Gordon, 1957, Potiicoara brasiliensis Pires, 1987, Mangkurtu mityula Poore & Humphreys, 1998.

Two fossil species, Acadiocaris novascotica and Liaoningogriphus quadripartitus , have been respectively described by Copeland (1957) from Carboniferous sediments in Canada, and by Yan-bin, Taylor & Schram (1998) from Upper Jurassic of China.

On the left: Spelaeogriphus lepidops from Gordon (1957)



  • Spelaeogriphus Gordon, 1957

  • Potiicoara Pires, 1987

  • Mangkurtu Poore & Humphreys, 1998


    Spelaeogriphus lepidops Gordon, 1957 [Table Mountain, South Africa; cave]

    Potiicoara brasiliensis Pires, 1987 [Mato Grosso, Brazil; cave]

    Mangkurtu mityula Poore & Humphreys, 1998 [Pilbara, Western Australia; Millstream aquifer]



    RELEVANT LITERATURE

  • Gordon I. 1957. On Spelaeogriphus, a new cavernicolous crustacean from South Africa. Bull. British Mus. (Nat. Hist.), 5: 31-47.

  • Pires A.M.S. 1987. Potiicoara brasiliensis: a new genus and species of Spelaeogriphacea (Crustacea: Peracarida) from Brazil, with a phylogenetic analysis of the Peracarida. J. Nat. Hist., London, 21: 225-238.

  • Poore G.C. & W.F. Humphreys. 1998. First record of Spelaeogriphacea from Australasia: a new genus and species from an aquifer in the arid Pilbara of Western Australia. Crustaceana, 71 (7): 721-742.



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