A freshwater crab Potamon (Brachyura: Potamidae) from the middle Miocene Lake Bugojno (Gračanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina), with notes on potamid taphonomy

The oldest freshwater crabs: claws on dinosaur bones

“…Interestingly, the only fossil representative of nowadays strictly freshwater anomurans, the family Aeglidae, comes from marine strata 123 . Fossil freshwater brachyurans are limited to a number of occurrences of isolated claws 9,[15][16][17][18] and several fossils exhibiting preserved carapace [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]124 . The oldest occurrences of undisputed primary freshwater crabs are from the…”

“…Representatives of three families were identified unequivocally as fossils, including Potamidae Ortmann, 1896 2 , Potamonautidae Bott, 1970 3 and Trichodactylidae H. Milne Edwards, 1853 4 5-7 . Articulated exoskeletons of fossil freshwater crabs are rare [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] , although isolated cheliped fingers are much more frequent, but difficult to evaluate taxonomically 9,[15][16][17][18] 30 Ma) is the oldest fossil record of a freshwater brachyuran in the Old World and there is no remain of Potamidae older than early Miocene 9 . The oldest record of freshwater crabs is from the middle Eocene of the Amazon Basin (ca 40 Ma) and belongs to the family Trichodactylidae 7 , a group of crabs that likely colonized freshwater habitats independently from 80 potamoids, as indicated by morphology 19 and molecular phylogeny 20 .…”