A new deepwater lobster, Metanephrops serendipitus sp. nov. (Crustacea, Decapoda, Nephropidae), from lower Miocene of Meljski hrib (Maribor, Slovenia)

Una nueva langosta de aguas profundas, Metanephrops serendipitus sp. nov. (Crustacea, Decapoda, Nephropidae), del Mioceno inferior en Meljski hrib (Maribor, Eslovenia)

Rok Gašparič^1,2,*, Dale Tshudy³, Tin-Yam Chan⁴, Stjepan Ćorić⁵

¹ Oertijdmuseum, Bosscheweg 80, 5293 WB Boxtel, Netherlands.

² Novi trg 59, 1241 Kamnik, Slovenia.

³ Department of Geosciences, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, Pennsylvania 16412, USA.

⁴ Institute of Marine Biology and Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202301, Taiwan.

⁵ Geological Survey of Austria, Neulinggasse 38, 1030 Vienna, Austria.

* Corresponding author: (R. Gašparič) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How to cite this article:

Gašparič, R., Tshudy, D., Chan, T.Y., Ćorić, S., 2021, A new deep-water lobster, Metanephrops serendipitus sp. nov. (Crustacea, Decapoda, Nephropidae), from lower Miocene of Meljski hrib (Maribor, Slovenia): Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, 73 (3), A240521. http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2021v73n3a240521

ABSTRACT

A new species of nephropid lobster, Metanephrops serendipitus sp. nov., is described from the lower Miocene (Ottnangian/Karpatian) in beds of Central Paratethys. Metanephrops serendipitus sp. nov. represents the first fossil representative of the genus from the northern hemisphere and thus extends its known palaeobiogeographical distribution. Additionally, the palaeoecology of the new species is discussed. Similar to extant species of Metanephrops, the fossil nephropid inhabited a fine-grained deep-sea environment, associated with frequent brittle stars.

Keywords: Decapoda, Nephropidae, south-central Europe, Central Paratethys, palaeobiogeography.