Furry lobsters | |
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Palinurellus gundlachi | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Subphylum: | Crustacea |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Infraorder: | Achelata |
Family: | Palinuridae (or Synaxidae) |
Genera and species | |
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Furry lobsters (sometimes called coral lobsters) are small decapod crustaceans, closely related to the slipper lobsters and spiny lobsters. The antennae are not as enlarged as in spiny and slipper lobsters, and the body is covered in short hairs, hence the name furry lobster. Although previously considered a family in their own right (Synaxidae Spence Bate, 1881), the furry lobsters were subsumed into the family Palinuridae in 1990, and molecular phylogenies support the inclusion of the furry lobsters in the family Palinuridae. There are two genera, with three species between them: