A new spelaeogriphacean (Crustacea: Peracarida) from the Upper Jurassic of China

A new monotypic genus of Spelaeogriphacea is described from the Upper Jurassic of Liaoning Province, north-east China. This new genus and species brings the number of known spelaeogriphacean taxa to four, the others being two recent forms from Brazil and South Africa, and one from the Carboniferous of eastern Canada. The new Chinese form is morphologically (and phylogenetically) very similar to the recent spelaeogriphaceans, suggesting that the body plan seen in the recent Spelaeogriphacea was achieved relatively early in the history of the group. A cladistic analysis of this and several other peracaridan orders indicates that the Spelaeogriphacea may be a paraphyletic group. This suggests that much work remains to be done with respect to the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships among the peracaridan taxa.