{{Short description|Family of crustaceans}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{fossil range|Albian|recent|earliest=Aptian|Albian–recent}} | image = Cherax pulcher 42998.jpg | image_caption = ''Cherax pulcher'' | parent_authority = Huxley, 1879 | display_parents = 2 | taxon = Parastacidae | authority = Huxley, 1879 <ref>{{cite book |title=The Crayfish: an Introduction to the Study of Zoology |url=https://archive.org/details/crayfishintroduc80huxl |year=1879 |author=T. H. Huxley |author-link=Thomas Henry Huxley |publisher=C. Kegan Paul & Co. |location=London}}</ref> | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = *†''Aenigmastacus'' *''Astacoides'' *''Astacopsis'' *''Cherax'' *''Engaeus'' *''Engaewa'' *''Euastacus'' *''Geocharax'' *''Gramastacus'' *''Ombrastacoides'' *†''Palaeoechinastacus'' *''Paranephrops'' *''Parastacus'' *''Samastacus'' *''Spinastacoides'' *''Tenuibranchiurus'' *''Virilastacus'' }}
The '''Parastacidae''' are the family of freshwater crayfish found in the Southern Hemisphere. The family is a classic Gondwana-distributed taxon, with extant members in South America, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea, and extinct taxa also in Antarctica.
==Classification and phylogeny== Parastacidae belongs to the superfamily '''Parastacoidea''', the monotypic taxon which contains all crayfish in the Southern Hemisphere. Parastacoidea is the sister taxon to Astacoidea, which contains all crayfish of the Northern Hemisphere. Crayfish and lobsters together comprise the infraorder Astacidea, as shown in the simplified cladogram below:<ref name="Wolfe2019">{{cite journal |last1=Wolfe |first1=Joanna M. |last2=Breinholt |first2=Jesse W. |last3=Crandall |first3=Keith A. |last4=Lemmon |first4=Alan R. |last5=Lemmon |first5=Emily Moriarty |last6=Timm |first6=Laura E. |last7=Siddall |first7=Mark E. |last8=Bracken-Grissom |first8=Heather D. |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.0079 |title=A phylogenomic framework, evolutionary timeline and genomic resources for comparative studies of decapod crustaceans |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B | date=24 April 2019 |volume=286 |issue=1901 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2019.0079 |pmc=6501934 |pmid=31014217 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Crandall2017">{{Cite journal |last1=Crandall |first1=Keith A. |last2=De Grave |first2=Sammy |date=2017 |title=An updated classification of the freshwater crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidea) of the world, with a complete species list |journal=Journal of Crustacean Biology |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=615–653 |doi=10.1093/jcbiol/rux070 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Bracken2014">{{cite journal| author1=Heather D. Bracken-Grissom |author2=Shane T. Ahyong |author3=Richard D. Wilkinson |author4=Rodney M. Feldmann |author5=Carrie E. Schweitzer |author6=Jesse W. Breinholt |author7=Matthew Bendall |author8=Ferran Palero |author9=Tin-Yam Chan |author10=Darryl L. Felder |author11=Rafael Robles |author12=Ka-Hou Chu |author13=Ling-Ming Tsang |author14=Dohyup Kim |author15=Joel W. Martin |author16=Keith A. Crandall |title=The Emergence of Lobsters: Phylogenetic Relationships, Morphological Evolution and Divergence Time Comparisons of an Ancient Group (Decapoda: Achelata, Astacidea, Glypheidea, Polychelida) |journal=Systematic Biology |date=July 2014 |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=457–479 |doi=10.1093/sysbio/syu008 |doi-access= |pmid=24562813 |hdl=10550/106842 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> {{clade |label1=Astacidea |1={{clade |label1=clawed lobsters |1={{clade |label1=Enoplometopoidea |1=Enoplometopidae |label2=Nephropoidea |2=Nephropidae }} |label2=crayfish |2={{clade |label1='''Parastacoidea''' |1='''Parastacidae''' |label2=Astacoidea |2={{clade |1=Cambaroididae |2={{clade |1=Astacidae |2=Cambaridae }} }} }} }} }}
==Distribution== upright=1.4|thumb|left|The natural range of the family Parastacidae <ref>{{Cite web |author=J. W. Fetzner Jr |year=2005 |title=The crayfish and lobster taxonomy browser: a global taxonomic resource for freshwater crayfish and their closest relatives |access-date=27 March 2006 |url=http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/NewAstacidea/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225758/http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/NewAstacidea/ |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Three genera are found in Chile, ''Virilastacus'', ''Samastacus'' and ''Parastacus'', the last of which also occurs disjunctly in southern Brazil and Uruguay.
There are no crayfish native to continental Africa, but seven species on Madagascar, all of the genus ''Astacoides''.<ref name="Boyko">{{cite journal |author1=Christopher B. Boyko |author2=Olga Ramilijaona Ravoahangimalala |author3=Désiré Randriamasimanana |author4=Tony Harilala Razafindrazaka |title=''Astacoides hobbsi'', a new crayfish (Crustacea: Decapoda: Parastacidae) from Madagascar |journal=Zootaxa |volume=1091 |pages=41–51 |url=http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/cfref/download.asp?file=Boyko_etal_2005_Zootaxa1091.pdf |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.1091.1.3 |year=2005 |access-date=2012-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808171917/http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/cfref/download.asp?file=Boyko_etal_2005_Zootaxa1091.pdf |archive-date=2017-08-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Australasia is particularly rich in crayfish. The small genus ''Paranephrops'' is endemic to New Zealand. The genera ''Astacopsis'' is endemic to Tasmania, while a further two are found on either side of the Bass Strait – ''Geocharax'' and ''Engaeus''. The greatest diversity, however, is found on the Australian mainland. Three genera are endemic and have restricted distributions (''Engaewa'', ''Gramastacus'' and ''Tenuibranchiurus''), while two are more widespread and contain more than one hundred species between them: ''Euastacus'', around the Australian coast from Melbourne to Brisbane, and ''Cherax'' across Australia and New Guinea. The Tasmanian genus ''Parastacoides'' was determined to be a synonym of ''Geocharax'', and is no longer valid.<ref name=worms>{{Cite web |title=World Register of Marine Species, genus ''Geocharax'' |url=http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=885849 |access-date=2021-10-25 }}</ref> However, the ''Parastacoides tasmanicus'' subspecies were not reassigned to ''Geocharax'' but placed in two new genera, ''Spinastacoides'' and ''Ombrastacoides.''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hansen |first=Brita |last2=Richardson |first2=Alastair M. M. |date=2006-12-15 |title=A revision of the Tasmanian endemic freshwater crayfish genus Parastacoides (Crustacea : Decapoda : Parastacidae) |url=https://connectsci.au/is/article/20/6/713/67383/A-revision-of-the-Tasmanian-endemic-freshwater |journal=Invertebrate Systematics |language=en |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=713–769 |doi=10.1071/IS05035 |issn=1445-5226}}</ref>
==Fossil record== The oldest specimens from the family Parastacidae are the Albian fossils of ''Palaeoechinastacus'' from Victoria, Australia.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Anthony J. Martin |author2=Thomas H. Rich |author3=Gary C. B. Poore |author4=Mark B. Schultz |author5=Christopher M. Austin |author6=Lesley Kool |author7=Patricia Vickers-Rich |year=2008 |title=Fossil evidence in Australia for oldest known freshwater crayfish of Gondwana |journal=Gondwana Research |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=287–296 |doi=10.1016/j.gr.2008.01.002 |url=http://www.envs.emory.edu/faculty/MARTIN/ResearchDocs/MartinEtal.2008.pdf |access-date=2012-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120417021447/http://www.envs.emory.edu/faculty/MARTIN/ResearchDocs/MartinEtal.2008.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The only northern hemisphere representative is also a fossil, ''Aenigmastacus crandalli'' from Canada.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Rodney A. Feldmann, Carrie E. Schweitzer & John Leahy |year=2011 |title=New Eocene crayfish from the McAbee Beds in British Columbia: First record of Parastacoidea in the Northern Hemisphere |journal=Journal of Crustacean Biology |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=320–331 |doi=10.1651/10-3399.1|doi-access=free }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|32em}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}}
{{Decapoda}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q1190541}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Parastacidae Category:Crayfish Category:Extant Albian first appearances Category:Taxa named by Thomas Henry Huxley Category:Decapod families