UTILITY OF PROXY CHARACTERS FOR CLASSIFICATION OF FOSSILS: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE FOSSIL XANTHOIDEA (CRUSTACEA: DECAPODA: BRACHYURA)

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Abstract
Diagnoses based upon preservable carapace features are provided for the brachyuran families Carpiliidae, Palaeoxanthopsidae new family, Pseudoziidae, and Zanthopsidae, newly raised to family status. In order to make family and generic level assignments, characters of the dorsal carapace can be used successfully as proxies for soft-part morphology that is not commonly or never preserved in fossils. The identification of carpiliids and pseudoziids in the fossil record yields critical information about the time of divergence of these groups, no later than Eocene, and the relationships between those two families, the Eriphiidae, and the extinct Zanthopsidae. Because the timing of divergence of at least two xanthoid families is now known more accurately, more constrained phylogenetic studies can result. The Eocene to Recent Carpiliidae is restricted to one extant genus and five fossil genera. The Eocene to Recent Pseudoziidae contains the fossil genera Archaeozius new genus, Priabonocarcinus, and Sant...