Porcellanidae

Porcelain crabs are decapod crustaceans in the widespread family Porcellanidae, which superficially resemble true crabs. They have flattened bodies as an adaptation for living in rock crevices. They are delicate, readily losing limbs when attacked, and use their large claws for maintaining territories. They first appeared in the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic epoch, 145–152 million years ago.

Porcellanidae

J. Antonio Baeza · CC BY 4.0 · 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
Sits inside
GalatheoideaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Decapoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 94 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 94 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 94 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 37 of 94 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 94 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 22 of 94 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 94 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 94 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 6 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 5 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 19 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 5 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 13 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 24 occurrences93.9 Mya11.7 ka103 Mya0 Mya

94 occurrences of Porcellanidae 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

94 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

14 formations

Castelgomberto — 45.50°N, 11.40°ECastelgomberto — 45.58°N, 11.38°ECastelgomberto — 45.53°N, 11.48°EPinczow — 50.47°N, 20.80°EMoin — 9.99°N, 83.03°WDiscovery Point — 29.10°N, 118.25°WDiscovery Point — 28.97°N, 118.22°WNdalithoni Limestone — 17.23°S, 178.95°ESables du Perche — 48.00°N, 0.22°EUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.93°N, 14.33°ENdalithoni — 17.24°S, 178.94°WQuebrada Chocolate — 9.97°N, 83.07°WTamiami — 26.98°N, 82.21°WMegami — 34.70°N, 128.18°ECalcareniti di Castelgomberto — 45.43°N, 11.52°ELeitha Limestone — 47.83°N, 16.48°EFalmouth — 18.48°N, 77.45°W

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The named rock units Porcellanidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 75 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Porcellanidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Porcellanidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

771 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 37 sites for Porcellanidae, 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

29 references

Each of the 94 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. 17 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 Porcellanidae

Credit
J. Antonio Baeza
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Porcellanidae 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 itGalatheoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Haworth 1825