Majidae

Majidae is a family of crabs, comprising around 200 marine species inside 52 genera, with a carapace that is longer than it is broad, and which forms a point at the front. The legs can be very long in some species, leading to the name "spider crab". The exoskeleton is covered with bristles to which the crab attaches algae and other items to act as camouflage.

Majidae

Uncredited · 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
spider crabPBDB
Sits inside
MajoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Decapoda
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Decapoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 4 of 137 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 137 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 37 of 137 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 137 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 33 of 137 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 137 occurrencesPleistocene — about 27 of 137 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 6 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 7 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 7 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 8 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–26 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 14 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.5–5.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 11 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 50 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

137 occurrences of Majidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

137 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

38 formations

Coral Rock — 13.07°N, 59.52°WCoral Rock — 13.09°N, 59.60°WCoral Rock — 13.19°N, 59.63°WCoral Rock — 13.33°N, 59.63°WCoral Rock — 13.04°N, 59.52°WCastle Hayne — 34.63°N, 77.75°WCastle Hayne — 34.64°N, 77.67°WCastle Hayne — 34.37°N, 77.84°WMontpelier — 18.47°N, 77.58°WUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.93°N, 14.33°EUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.92°N, 14.38°ELillo — 51.26°N, 4.21°ELillo — 51.29°N, 4.25°EPort Morant — 17.87°N, 76.32°WRoda — 42.44°N, 0.26°EFalmouth — 18.48°N, 77.45°WIsland Sandstone — 42.03°S, 171.35°ECalcareniti di Castelgomberto — 45.43°N, 11.52°EOidawara — 35.52°N, 137.08°ELeitha Limestone — 47.83°N, 16.48°EEstancia 25 de Mayo — 50.51°S, 72.25°WNdalithoni Limestone — 17.23°S, 178.95°ECastell'Arquato — 44.86°N, 9.88°ELondon Clay — 51.42°N, 0.82°ECárdenas — 22.00°N, 99.64°WNdalithoni — 17.24°S, 178.94°WBrownstown — 33.85°N, 93.85°WOcala — 29.96°N, 82.93°WUrenui — 38.96°S, 174.54°EGreta — 43.05°S, 173.07°ELeitha-limestone — 46.93°N, 17.45°EPriabona Marl — 45.47°N, 10.97°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Majidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 65 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Majidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Majidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

871 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 79 sites for Majidae, 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

64 references

Each of the 137 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. 52 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 Majidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Majidae 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 itMajoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Samouelle 1819