A new iphiculid crab (Crustacea, Brachyura, Leucosioidea) from the Middle Miocene of Austria, with notes on palaeobiogeography of Iphiculus.
A new fossil species of the iphiculid genus Iphiculus Adams & White, 1849, (Crustacea, Brachyura) is described on the basis of three specimens from the Middle Miocene Florian Beds of Styria, Austria. Iphiculus eliasi sp. nov. constitutes the first European record of the genus. This occurrence represents the oldest record of Iphiculus, having implications for the palaeobiogeographic history of the family Iphiculidae. It is suggested that Iphiculus may have originated in the Western Tethys and migrated subsequently into the Indo-West Pacific. Alternatively, its current geographic restriction to the Indo-West Pacific can be a remnant of an ancient broader geographic distribution.
Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Geology and Palaeontology, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, SVK-842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia. Geological-paleontological Department, Natural History Museum, Vienna, Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria.; Email: hyzny.matus@gmail.com.
Matúš
M
Hyžný
Department for Geology & Palaeontology, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Weinzöttlstrasse 16, 8045 Graz, Austria.; Email: martin.gross@museum-joanneum.at.
Martin
M
Gross
D000818:Animals; D001317:Austria; D003386:Brachyura / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D005580:Fossils; D058974:Phylogeography