Metanephrops

Metanephrops Temporal range: Late Cretaceous–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Metanephrops japonicus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Family:	Nephropidae
Genus:	Metanephrops Jenkins, 1972
Type species
Nephrops japonicus Tapparone-Canefri, 1873

Metanephrops is a genus of lobsters, commonly known as scampi. Important species for fishery include Metanephrops australiensis (Australian scampi) and Metanephrops challengeri (New Zealand scampi). 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.^[1] There are 18 extant species recognised in the genus:^[2]

• Metanephrops andamanicus (Wood-Mason, 1891)
• Metanephrops arafurensis (De Man, 1905)
• Metanephrops armatus Chan & Yu, 1991
• Metanephrops australiensis (Bruce, 1966)
• Metanephrops binghami (Boone, 1927)
• Metanephrops boschmai (Holthuis, 1964)
• Metanephrops challengeri (Balss, 1914)
• Metanephrops formosanus Chan & Yu, 1987
• Metanephrops japonicus (Tapparone-Canefri, 1873)
• Metanephrops mozambicus Macpherson, 1990
• Metanephrops neptunus (Bruce, 1965)
• Metanephrops rubellus (Moreira, 1903)
• Metanephrops sagamiensis (Parisi, 1917)
• Metanephrops sibogae (De Man, 1916)
• Metanephrops sinensis (Bruce, 1966)
• Metanephrops taiwanicus (Hu, 1983)
• Metanephrops thomsoni (Bate, 1888)
• Metanephrops velutinus Chan & Yu, 1991

A further three species are known from fossils:^[3][4]

• Metanephrops jenkinsi Feldmann, 1989 – Late Cretaceous
• Metanephrops motunauensis Jenkins, 1972 – Pliocene
• Metanephrops rossensis Feldmann et al., 1993 – Late Cretaceous

References

1. Lipke Holthuis (1991). FAO species catalogue Vol. 13: Marine lobsters of the world. FAO.
2. Tin-Yam Chan (2010). "Metanephrops Jenkins, 1972". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
3. Sammy De Grave; N. Dean Pentcheff; Shane T. Ahyong; et al. (2009). "A classification of living and fossil genera of decapod crustaceans" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 21: 1–109.
4. Dale Tshudy, Tin-Yam Chan & Ulf Sorhannus (2007). "Morphology-based clasdistic analysis of Metanephrops: the most diverse extant genus of clawed lobster (Nephropidae)". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 27 (3): 463–476. doi:10.1651/S-2777.1.