Thaumastochelidae

The family Thaumastochelidae contains five known species of deep-sea lobsters, three in the genus Thaumastocheles, and two in the genus Thaumastochelopsis. The fifth species was discovered in the ten–year Census of Marine Life.^[1][2] These creatures are distinguished from other clawed lobsters by their blindness (an adaptation to deep-sea life), and by their single elongated, spiny chela.^[3]

Thaumastochelidae
Thaumastocheles massonktenos
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Pleocyemata
Superfamily:	Nephropoidea
Family:	Thaumastochelidae Bate, 1888
Genera
Thaumastocheles Wood-Mason, 1874 Thaumastochelopsis Bruce, 1988

The family Thaumastochelidae is now more usually subsumed into the lobster family Nephropidae.^[4]

Species

The five species are as follows:

• Thaumastocheles
  • Thaumastocheles dochmiodon Chan & de Saint Laurent, 1999 is found in the Timor Sea.
  • Thaumastocheles japonicus Calman, 1913, the "Pacific pincer lobster", is endemic to the Sea of Japan.

T. japonicus

• • Thaumastocheles zaleucus Thomson, 1873, the "Atlantic pincer lobster" or "Atlantic deep-sea lobster", is endemic to the Caribbean region.

Specimen of T. zaleucus

• Thaumastochelopsis
  • Thaumastochelopsis brucei Ahyong, Chu & Chan, 2007 lives in the Coral Sea.
  • Thaumastochelopsis wardi Bruce, 1988, the "Australian pincer lobster", lives in the Coral Sea.