Welcome to the “MBFossilcrabs” website!

 

With the aim of sharing my passion for fossil crustaceans, I have created this website as a visual showcase of my personal collection of fossil decapods. It currently features more than 1,700 photographs representing around 750 species of decapods, mainly brachyurans, out of the more than 3,000 fossil brachyuran species known to date.

The specimens are organised following a systematic classification, arranged by superfamilies or infraorders, and subsequently by families and subfamilies. The different groups can be accessed through the left-hand menu or the tabs above.

The systematic arrangement adopted here is based mainly on the works of Ng et al. (2008), De Grave et al. (2009), and the most recent volumes of the Treatise Online. Other particularly important references include Guinot, Tavares & Castro (2013) and Davie et al. (2015). I have also taken into account the more recent phylogenetic hypotheses proposed by Luque et al. (2024), based on molecular analyses and fossil calibrations, and Pan et al. (2024), based on phylogenomic analyses of transcriptomic data.

The systematics of fossil decapods is a constantly evolving field, with major changes and revisions taking place especially over the last few decades. Keeping up with these developments is certainly a challenging task, but I will do my best to keep the website regularly updated as new discoveries, revisions, and interpretations are published.

For each species, whenever available, you will also find geographical and geological information, together with selected bibliographical references. My aim is to make this website not only a visual catalogue of my collection, but also a useful resource for anyone interested in the fascinating world of fossil decapod crustaceans.

Comments, corrections, and suggestions are always very welcome.

I hope you enjoy exploring the collection!