Detailed Reference Information

The Palinuridae arose in the Atlantic-European region during early Mesozoic at a period of high sea level in the vast, warm 'Super Tethys' Ocean. During the Tertiary, equator-ward movements of the African, South American, and Australian Plates have subdivided the Tethys, created and expanded the Southern Ocean, and thus produced a multitude of separated environmental habitats in all the major oceans of the world. The family diverged in the Jurassic into the Stridentes group, seven genera of which survive today in the low-latitude equatorial zone, and the Silentes group, three genera of which live today in the mid-latitude temperate zone of the Southern Ocean and one genus in the equatorial zone. The older extant genera in both groups generally live in relict habitats at the greatest depths and the younger genera have radiated into the many new shallow-water habitats. Two major lineages within the Stridentes genus, Panulirus, are recognized, the older lineage living in the clear, cooler, more stable subtropical zone and the younger living in the warmer, turbid, more rapidly evolving tropical zone. Two major lineages are also recognized in the Silentes genus, Jasus, one lineage living on the continental shelves of Africa, Australia, and New Zealand and the other living on the isolated volcanic islands and sea-mounts of the southern subantarctic zone.