Pseudastacus

Pseudastacus is an extinct genus of decapod crustaceans that lived during the Jurassic period in Europe, and possibly the Cretaceous period in Lebanon. Many species have been assigned to it, though the placement of some species remains uncertain and others have been reassigned to different genera. Fossils attributable to this genus were first described by Georg zu Münster in 1839 under the name Bolina pustulosa, but the generic name was changed in 1861 after Albert Oppel noted that it was preoccupied. The genus has been placed into different families by numerous authors, historically being assigned to Nephropidae or Protastacidae. Currently, it is believed to be a member of Stenochiridae.

Pseudastacus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
StenochiridaePBDB
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 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 165.3 Mya to 145.06 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 3 of 4 occurrencesLate Jurassic166–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences164–164 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences162–162 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences159–159 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161.5 Mya149.2 Mya165.8 Mya144.6 Mya

4 occurrences of Pseudastacus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

4 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

3 formations

Liegende Bankkalk — 48.12°N, 8.87°EOxford Clay — 52.33°N, 0.09°WSolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.11°E

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The named rock units Pseudastacus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pseudastacus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Pseudastacus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

87 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Pseudastacus, 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

4 references

Each of the 4 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. 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 Pseudastacus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pseudastacus 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 itStenochiridae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Oppel 1861