Metanephrops

Metanephrops is a genus of lobsters, commonly known as scampi. Important species for fishery include Metanephrops australiensis and Metanephrops challengeri. It differs from other lobsters such as Homarus and Nephrops norvegicus in that its two main claws are of equal size, rather than being differentiated into a crusher and a pincher. There are 18 extant species recognised in the genus:

Metanephrops

Dieno · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NephropidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Decapoda
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Nephropoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 51 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 8 of 12 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 12 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 12 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesMiocene85–83 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–71 Mya — about 1 occurrence71–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–66 Mya — about 1 occurrence66–64 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences62–59 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences59–57 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences36–33 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72.2 Mya20.45 Mya85 Mya15 Mya

12 occurrences of Metanephrops on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

12 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Santa Marta — 63.91°S, 57.81°WSanta Marta — 63.87°S, 57.90°WLopez de Bertodano — 64.25°S, 56.75°WSobral — 64.25°S, 56.75°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Metanephrops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Metanephrops and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Metanephrops and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

84 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Metanephrops, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 12 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Metanephrops

Credit
Dieno
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Metanephrops was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNephropidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jenkins 1972