The decapod crustaceans of the Gulf of Oman have been documented based on the published literature and new sampling along the Iranian coast between 2005 and 2015. A total of 121 species were collected along the Iranian coast, of which 43 are new records for the Gulf of Oman. The Decapoda of the Gulf is currently represented by 258 species belonging to five infraorders: Axiidea, Achelata, Anomur...

Many freshwater shrimps (Decapoda, Caridea) have amphidromous life histories, with extended planktonic larval development in the sea. Larvae either are hatched upstream to drift down to the sea or are carried and released there by females. After development, postlarvae (juveniles) must migrate back up to their adult freshwater habitat. An amphidromous life cycle thus involves long distance migr...

The galatheid crab, Shinkaia crosnieri (Decapoda: Galatheidae), forms dense colonies in the Iheya North and Hatoma Knoll deep-sea hydrothermal fields and has numerous setae covered with filamentous epibiotic microorganisms. Molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that the epibiotic communities in S. crosnieri consisted mainly of yet-uncultivated phylotypes within Epsilonproteobacteria and Gamm...

A new pontoniine shrimp species, Eupontonia nudirostris sp. nov. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Palaemonidae: Pontoniinae), was found in association with the thalassematid spoon worm Listriolobus sp. (Echiura: Thalassematidae) in the mangrove littoral of Dam Bay of Tre Island, Nhatrang Bay, Vietnam. This is the first record of an association between symbiotic pontoniine shrimp and spoon worm as their ho...

Rhinobatos percellens is one of three species of Rhinobatidae found on Brazilian shores and is one of the most abundant species on the shallow continental shelf of Paraná and Santa Catarina States. Specimens caught by artisanal fishery between July/2001 and March/2003 by fishing communities located on the frontier between two southern Brazilian States (Paraná and Santa Catarina) had their stoma...

Fiddler crabs (Uca spp., Decapoda: Ocypodidae) are commonly found forming large aggregations in intertidal zones, where they perform rhythmic waving displays with their greatly enlarged claws. While performing these displays, fiddler crabs often synchronize their behavior with neighboring males, forming the only known synchronized visual courtship displays involving reflected light and moving b...

Pandalopsis spinosior Hanamura, Kohno & Sakaji, 2000 (Decapoda: Caridea: Pandalidae) was originally described on the basis of material collected in the Urup Strait, South Kurile Islands, but there have been no subsequent records of the species since the original description. The Marine Science Museum, Fukushima Prefecture (Aquamarine Fukushima) has carried out investigations on deep-water anima...

Early Cretaceous body and trace fossils in Victoria, Australia, establish the oldest known presence of parastacid crayfish (Decapoda: Astacidea, Parastacoidea) in freshwater environments of Australia, and the oldest known crayfish in Gondwana. Parastacid body fossils, comprised of a partial abdomen (Palaeoechinastacus australianus, gen. et sp. nov.) and two chelae, are from a fluvial deposit in...

Zoeal stages of the hermit crab Labidochirus anomalus (Balss, 1913) (Decapoda: Anomura: Paguridae) are described and illustrated from the larvae reared in the laboratory. The development included four zoeal stages following the typical pattern in the Paguridae. Morphological features of the larvae of L. anomalus are compared with those described for the related species L. splendescens (Owen, 18...