Notostraca
The order Notostraca comprises the single family Triopsidae, containing the tadpole shrimp[1] or shield shrimp.[2] The two genera, Triops and Lepidurus, are considered living fossils, having not changed significantly in outward form since the Triassic. They have a broad, flat carapace, which conceals the head and bears a single pair of compound eyes. The abdomen is long, appears to be segmented and bears numerous pairs of flattened legs. The telson is flanked by a pair of long, thin caudal rami. Phenotypic plasticity within taxa makes species-level identification difficult, and is further compounded by variation in the mode of reproduction. Notostracans are omnivores living on the bottom of temporary pools and shallow lakes.
Notostraca | |
---|---|
Triops australiensis | |
Lepidurus apus | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Subphylum: | Crustacea |
Class: | Branchiopoda |
Order: | Notostraca G. O. Sars, 1867 |
Family: | Triopsidae Keilhack, 1909 |
Genera | |
Description
Notostracans are 2–10 centimetres (0.8–3.9 in) long, with a broad carapace at the front end, and a long, slender abdomen.[1] This gives them a similar overall shape to a tadpole, from which the common name tadpole shrimp derives.[1] The carapace is dorso-ventrally flattened, smooth, and bears no rostrum; it includes the head, and the two sessile compound eyes are located together on top of the head.[1] The two pairs of antennae are much reduced, with the second pair sometimes missing altogether.[2] The mouthparts comprise a pair of uniramous mandibles and no maxillipeds.[2]
The trunk comprises a large number of "body rings", which appear to be body segments, but do not always reflect the underlying segmentation.[1] The first eleven body rings compose the thorax and bear one pair of legs each, the last of which also bears the genital opening.[1] In the female, it is modified to form a "brood pouch".[3] The first one or two pairs of legs differ from the remainder, and probably function as sensory organs.[3]
The remaining segments form the abdomen. The number of body rings is variable both within and between species,[1] and the number of pairs of legs per body ring can rise as high as six.[4] The legs become progressively smaller along the abdomen,[3] with the last segments being legless.[1]
The abdomen ends in a telson and a pair of long, thin, multi-articulate caudal rami.[5] The form of the telson varies between the two genera: in Lepidurus, a rounded projection extends between the caudal rami, while in Triops there is no such projection.[1]
Life cycle
Within the Notostraca, and even within species, there is variation in the mode of reproduction, with some populations reproducing sexually, some showing self-fertilisation of females, and some showing a mix of the two.[1] The frequency of males in populations is therefore highly variable.[3] In sexual populations, the sperm leave the male's body through simple pores, there being no penis. The eggs are released by the female and then held in the cup-like brood pouch.[3] The eggs are retained by the female only for a short time before being laid,[4] and the larvae develop directly, without passing through a metamorphosis.[2]
Ecology and distribution
Notostracans are omnivorous, eating small animals such as fishes and fairy shrimp.[1] They are found worldwide in freshwater, brackish water, or saline pools, as well as in shallow lakes, peat bogs, and moorland.[2] The species Triops longicaudatus is considered an agricultural pest in California rice paddies, because it prevents light from reaching the rice seedlings by stirring up sediment.[6]
Evolution and fossil record
The fossil record of Notostraca is extensive, occurring in a wide range of geological deposits, and reaching back to the Carboniferous.[7] The lack of major morphological change since 250 million years ago has led to Notostraca being described as a living fossil.[8] Kazacharthra, a group known only from Triassic and Jurassic fossils from Kazakhstan and Western China,[9] are closely related to notostracans, and may belong within the order Notostraca.[10]
The "central autapomorphy" of the Notostraca is the abandonment of filter feeding in open water, and the development of a benthic lifestyle in muddy waters, taking up food from particles of sediment and preying on small animals.[4] A number of other characteristics are correlated with this change, including the increased size of the animal compared to its relatives, and the loss of the ability to hinge the carapace; although a central keel marks the former separation into two valves, the adductor muscle is missing.[4] Notostracans retain the plesiomorphic condition of having two separate compound eyes, which abut, but have not become united, as seen in other groups of Branchiopoda.[4]
Taxonomy
The extant members of order Notostraca composed a single family, Triopsidae, with only two genera, Triops and Lepidurus.[8] The problematic Middle Ordovician fossil Douglasocaris has been erected and placed in its own family Douglasocaridae by Caster & Brooks 1956, and may be ancestral to Notostraca.
The phenotypic plasticity shown by notostracan species make identification to the species level difficult.[8] Many putative species have been described based on morphological variation, such that by the 1950s, as many as 70 species were recognised.[8] Two important revisions – those of Linder in 1952[11] and Longhurst in 1955[12] – synonymised many taxa, and resulted in the recognition of only 11 species in the two genera. This taxonomy was accepted for decades,[8] "even attaining the status of dogma".[13] More recent studies, especially those employing molecular phylogenetics, have shown that the eleven currently recognised species conceal a greater number of reproductively isolated populations.[8]
See also
References
- Denton Belk (2007). "Branchiopoda". In Sol Felty Light; James T. Carlton (eds.). The Light and Smith Manual: Intertidal Invertebrates from Central California to Oregon (4th ed.). University of California Press. pp. 414–417. ISBN 978-0-520-23939-5.
- J. K. Lowry (October 2, 1999). "Notostraca (Branchiopoda)". Crustacea, the Higher Taxa: Description, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
- Douglas Grant Smith (2001). Pennak's freshwater invertebrates of the United States: Porifera to Crustacea (4th ed.). John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-35837-4.
- Peter Ax (2000). "Notostraca". Multicellular Animals. The Phylogenetic System of the Metazoa. Volume II. Springer. pp. 158–159. ISBN 978-3-540-67406-1.
- "Subclass 1. Branchiopoda". The Invertebrata (4th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 1961. pp. 368–375.
- Clifford, Hugh F. (1991). "Notostraca: Tadpole shrimp". Aquatic Invertebrates of Alberta: An illustrated guide. University of Alberta. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-0-88864-234-9.
- Atte Korhola & Milla Rautio (2001). "Cladocera and other branchiopod crustaceans". In John P. Smol; Harry John Betteley Birks & William M. Last (eds.). Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments. Volume 4: Zoological Indicators. Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 5–41. ISBN 978-1-4020-0658-6.
- Luc Brendonck; D. Christopher Rogers; Jorgen Olesen; Stephen Weeks & Walter R. Hoch (2008). "Global diversity of large branchiopods (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) in freshwater". In Estelle V. Balian; Christian Lévêque; Hendrik Segers & Koen Martens (eds.). Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment. Hydrobiologia. Developments in Hydrobiology 198. 595. pp. 167–176. doi:10.1007/s10750-007-9119-9. ISBN 978-1-4020-8258-0.
- Liu, Hongfu (1996). "New materials of Late Triassic Kazacharthra from Xinjaing". Acta Palaeontologica Sinica. 4 (35): 490–494. Archived from the original on 2013-04-14.
- Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla (2002). "Habitat specialization and its relation to conservation policy in Crustacea". In Elva Escobar-Briones; Fernando Alvarez (eds.). Modern Approaches to the Study of Crustacea. Springer. pp. 211–221. ISBN 978-0-306-47366-1.
- Folke Linder (1952). "Contributions to the morphology and taxonomy of the Branchiopoda Notostraca, with special reference to the North American species". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 102 (3291): 1–69. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.102-3291.1.
- Alan R. Longhurst (1955). "A review of the Notostraca". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). 3 (1): 1–57. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.4119.
- Clay Sassaman; Marie A. Simovich & Michael Fugate (1997). "Reproductive isolation and genetic differentiation in North American species of Triops (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Notostraca)". Hydrobiologia. 359 (1–3): 125–147. doi:10.1023/A:1003168416080.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Notostraca. |
- Triops cancriformis media from ARKive
- L. D. Godfrey & L. A. Espino (February 2009). "Tadpole shrimp. Scientific name: Triops longicaudatus". UC Pest Management Guidelines. University of California, Davis.
- Data related to Notostraca at Wikispecies