Axiidea
infraorder of decapod crustaceans
Axiidea is an infraorder of decapod crustaceans. They are colloquially known as mud shrimp, ghost shrimp, or burrowing shrimp; however, these decapods are only distantly related to true shrimp. Axiidea and Gebiidea are divergent infraorders of the former infraorder Thalassinidea. These infraorders have converged ecologically and morphologically as burrowing forms. Based on molecular evidence as of 2009, it is now widely believed that these two infraorders represent two distinct lineages separate from one another. Since this is a recent change, much of the literature and research surrounding these infraorders still refers to the Axiidea and Gebiidea in combination as "thalassinidean" for the sake of clarity and reference. This division based on molecular evidence is consistent with the groupings proposed by Robert Gurney in 1938 based on larval developmental stages.
Axiidea are noted for the burrows with complex architecture that they make in the ocean floor sediment. These burrows can be classified based on their external characteristics in the sediment as well as the trophic group that the species falls into. The population density of most species of Axiidea tends to be high, so these organisms play an important role in the biogeochemical processes of the ocean floor sediments, and in the creation of habitats that favor various marine benthic communities.
“Axiidea” enters the record as infraorder of decapod crustaceans. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Axiidea, infraorder and decapod can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Axiidea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.