Nephropidae

Lobsters are malacostracan decapod crustaceans of the family Nephropidae or its synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, which are usually much larger than the others. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important and are often one of the most profitable commodities in the coastal areas they populate.

Nephropidae

Bart Braun · 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
Also called
clawed lobsterPBDB
Sits inside
NephropoideaPBDB
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 274 million years on record.

The record covers at least 274.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 283.3 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Permian — about 2 of 323 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 323 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 323 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 323 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 323 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 323 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 323 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 101 of 323 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 156 of 323 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 17 of 323 occurrencesEocene — about 30 of 323 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 323 occurrencesMiocene — about 9 of 323 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 323 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 323 occurrences289–279 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences279–270 Mya — about 1 occurrence144–135 Mya — about 4 occurrences135–125 Mya — about 45 occurrences125–116 Mya — about 23 occurrences116–106 Mya — about 18 occurrences106–96 Mya — about 22 occurrences96–87 Mya — about 30 occurrences87–77 Mya — about 43 occurrences77–67 Mya — about 62 occurrences67–58 Mya — about 25 occurrences58–48 Mya — about 25 occurrences48–39 Mya — about 3 occurrences39–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–9.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences9.6–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences274.4 Mya129 ka289 Mya0 Mya

323 occurrences of Nephropidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

323 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

82 formations

London Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.73°N, 0.48°ELondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.72°N, 0.79°ELondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.19°WLondon Clay — 51.42°N, 0.90°ELondon Clay — 51.71°N, 0.74°ELondon Clay — 51.37°N, 1.04°ELondon Clay — 51.35°N, 1.00°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.70°ECalcaire à Spatangues — 47.60°N, 3.21°ELopez de Bertodano — 64.25°S, 56.75°WLopez de Bertodano — 63.83°S, 57.63°WLopez de Bertodano — 64.25°S, 56.89°WMerchantville — 39.55°N, 75.65°WMerchantville — 39.95°N, 74.99°WMerchantville — 40.06°N, 74.41°WMerchantville — 39.54°N, 75.68°WSanta Marta — 63.91°S, 57.81°WSanta Marta — 63.87°S, 57.90°WBearpaw Shale — 47.59°N, 106.89°WBearpaw Shale — 48.17°N, 107.38°WBearpaw Shale — 43.95°N, 102.99°WBearpaw Shale — 47.73°N, 105.83°WBearpaw Shale — 48.04°N, 106.61°WBearpaw Shale — 48.05°N, 106.47°WAtherfield Clay — 50.60°N, 1.32°WAtherfield Clay — 50.61°N, 1.36°WDays Creek — 42.95°N, 123.36°WDays Creek — 42.56°N, 124.07°WDays Creek — 42.94°N, 123.37°WBad Heart — 55.67°N, 118.94°WBad Heart — 55.51°N, 118.15°WBilá Hora — 50.08°N, 14.32°ESnow Hill Island — 63.00°S, 57.00°WSnow Hill Island — 63.89°S, 57.58°WSnow Hill Island — 64.20°S, 56.83°WSnow Hill Island — 63.99°S, 57.42°WRio Mayer — 48.28°S, 72.00°WRio Mayer — 48.80°S, 72.15°WRio Mayer — 48.90°S, 72.25°WRio Mayer — 48.92°S, 71.92°WRipley — 35.32°N, 88.42°WRipley — 34.56°N, 88.90°WRipley — 35.09°N, 88.53°WRipley — 35.00°N, 88.60°WGram — 55.28°N, 9.00°EGram — 55.31°N, 9.06°EBearpaw Shale — 49.68°N, 112.83°WBearpaw Shale — 49.51°N, 112.93°WBearpaw Shale — 49.03°N, 110.64°WBritton — 32.00°N, 96.00°WBritton — 32.54°N, 97.07°WLefipan — 43.04°S, 69.33°WLefipan — 42.84°S, 69.71°WMount Laurel — 40.12°N, 74.55°WMount Laurel — 40.26°N, 74.27°WMount Laurel — 39.54°N, 75.74°WSobral — 64.25°S, 56.75°WSobral — 65.57°S, 56.45°WFox Hills — 45.14°N, 100.88°WFox Hills — 46.94°N, 108.14°WPender — 49.73°N, 125.10°WPender — 49.82°N, 125.18°WDenton — 33.78°N, 96.52°WDenton — 32.95°N, 97.35°WTambo — 23.36°S, 144.70°ETambo — 23.27°S, 144.74°ETambo — 21.09°S, 149.17°EBearpaw — 48.02°N, 106.39°WBearpaw — 48.03°N, 106.32°WBearpaw — 47.80°N, 107.27°W

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The named rock units Nephropidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 58 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 102 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nephropidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

2,447 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 235 sites for Nephropidae, 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

115 references

Each of the 323 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. 103 further references are not listed. 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 Nephropidae

Credit
Bart Braun
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Nephropidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itNephropoidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dana 1852