{{Short description|Extinct genus of crustaceans}} {{Speciesbox | fossil_range = {{fossil_range|Olenekian}} | image = Ambilobeia reconstruction.png | image_caption = Life reconstruction of ''A. karojoi'' | genus = Ambilobeia | parent_authority = Garassino & Pasini, 2002 | species = karojoi | authority = Garassino & Pasini, 2002 }}
'''''Ambilobeia''''' is an extinct genus of prawn from the Isalo II Formation in Ambilobé, Madagascar during the Olenekian stage of the Early Triassic period.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://www.fossilmuseum.net/fossils/Invertebrates/Ambilobeia-karojoi/Ambilobeia.htm |title=Triassic Fossil Shrimp |publisher=The Virtual Fossil Museum |access-date=January 21, 2010}}</ref> It contains the species '''''Ambilobeia karojoi'''''.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |journal=Atti della Società italiana di scienze naturali e del Museo civico di storia naturale in Milano |volume=143 |issue=1 |pages=95–102 |year=2002 |url=http://decapoda.nhm.org/pdfs/10561/10561.pdf |author=Alessandro Garassino & Giovanni Pasini |title=Studies on Permo–Trias of Madagascar. 5. ''Ambilobeia karojoi'' n. gen., n. sp. (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the Lower Triassic (Olenekian) of Ambilobé region (NW Madagascar)}}</ref>
==Discovery and naming== The holotype, '''MSNM 125459''', was discovered by an unknown French palaeontologist in a deforested outcrop in the Isalo II Formation near Bobasatrana, Madagascar during 1990s and was donated to the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano before 2002 by Mr. Karojo, a local Malagasy prospector.<ref name=":1" /> The majority of specimens described by Garassino & Pasini (2002) were collected during the 1980s and 1990s following local Malagasy surveys of decapod fossils.
The species ''Ambilobeia karojoi'' was named and described in 2002 by Alessandro Garassino and Giovanni Pasini,<ref name=":1" /> and many other specimens have been discovered since its naming in 2002.<ref name=":0" />
==Description== ''Ambilobeia'' is one of the earliest known prawn species that existed in the Southern Hemisphere after the Permian–Triassic extinction event,<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Ma |first=K.Y. |last2=Chan |first2=T.-Y. |last3=Chu |first3=K.H. |date=2009 |title=Phylogeny of penaeoid shrimps (Decapoda: Penaeoidea) inferred from nuclear protein-coding genes |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2009.05.019 |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=45–55 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2009.05.019 |issn=1055-7903|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and it grew up to roughly {{Convert|8|cm|in}} long.<ref name=":1" />
Morphologically, ''Ambilobeia'' is characterized and differentiated from ''Ifasya'' by a slender carapace, an elongate rostrum without supra- or subrostral teeth, and the first three pereiopods bearing short, thin chelae.<ref name=":2" />
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Ambilobeia holotype.png|Holotype of ''A. karojoi'' (MSNM 125459), Isalo II Formation, Bobasatrana, Madagascar File:Prawn fossil from Madagascar cf. Ambilobeia.png|Specimen of ''cf. Ambilobeia'' from Madagascar </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Penaeidae Category:Monotypic prehistoric decapod genera Category:Triassic crustaceans Category:Prehistoric animals of Madagascar Category:Fossil taxa described in 2002