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Concept
Remipedia
Summary
Remipedia is a class of blind crustaceans, closely related to hexapods, found in coastal aquifers which contain saline groundwater, with populations identified in almost every ocean basin so far explored, including in Australia, the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. The first described remipede was the fossil Tesnusocaris goldichi (Lower Pennsylvanian). Since 1979, at least seventeen living species have been identified in subtropical regions around the world.
Remipedes are long and comprise a head and an elongate trunk of up to thirty-two similar body segments. Pigmentation and eyes are absent. Biramous swimming appendages are laterally present on each segment. The animals swim on their backs and are generally slow-moving. They are the only known venomous crustaceans, and have fangs connected to secretory glands, which inject a combination of digestive enzymes and venom into their prey, but they also feed through filter feeding. Being hermaphrodites, the female pore is located on the seventh trunk segment and the male pore on the fourteenth.
Remipedia have a generally primitive body plan compared to other extant crustaceans, and are the only extant pancrustaceans to lack significant postcephalic tagmosis. Previously regarded as 'primitive', remipedia have since been shown to have enhanced olfactory nerve centers (a common feature for species that live in dark environments).
Based on studies of the free-living larvae, they appear to be lecithotrophic (non-feeding). Mouths, guts, and anuses appear in the juvenile stage. Because of the energy and nutrients required for swimming, molt several times and to grow in size and length, it has been speculated that the larvae may have other sources of growth than its yolk, possibly symbiotic bacteria.
With the exception of Speleonectes kakuki, which inhabits a fully marine, sub-seafloor cave in the Bahamas, all known species of remipedians have been found exclusively in anchialine cave systems.
The class Remipedia was erected in 1981 by Jill Yager, in describing Speleonectes lucayensis from the Bahamas.
Official source
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