Goneplax rhomboides (Linnaeus, 1758)

Pasini, Giovanni, Garassino, Alessandro & Sami, Marco, 2018, Decapod crustaceans from the late Pliocene (Piacenzian) nearby Faenza (Emilia-Romagna, N Italy), Natural History Sciences 5 (2), pp. 27-32 : 30-31

Goneplax rhomboides – Pasini et al. 2014: 252, fig. 8B. — Baldanza et al. 2017: 62, fig. 16A, B.

Note: See Garassino et al. (2013) for complete synonymy.

Material and measurements: One specimen from Cà Raggio ( MSF 2250 – lcxp: 7 mm; wcxp: 9 mm) ; one specimen from Pietramora-Ca’ Tombarella ( MSF 2242 – lcxp: 16 mm; wcxp: 20 mm – male) ; five specimens from Podere Tombarona ( MSF 2205 a, b – lcxp: 9 mm; wcxp: 12 mm; MSF 2212 – lcxp: 15 mm; wcxp: 20 mm; MSF 2227 – lcxp: 11 mm; wcxp: 14 mm; MSF 2231 a, b – lcxp: 7 mm; wcxp: 9 mm; MSF 2232 – lcxp: 7 mm; wcxp: 9 mm) .

Discussion. According to Garassino et al. (2013), Goneplax rhomboides has a subrectangular carapace with two transverse ridges; well-developed orbits; developed extraorbital spine; dorsal regions not marked; elongated chelipeds. The dorsal characters of the studied specimens, including individuals of different sexes and stages of growth, fit well with the variability of this species. Goneplax rhomboides is reported to date only in the fossil record of Italy from the Miocene to Pleistocene of Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, and Sicily, as reported by many authors (for complete references see Garassino et al., 2013; Baldanza et al., 2017). The species seems to be the most common, wide-spread brachyuran decapod along the Italian Plio-Pleistocene paleo-Mediterranean coast, whereas the extant representatives are widespread in the eastern Atlantic, western Africa, and Mediterranean Sea, burrowing in sublittoral shallow muddy and sandy bottoms from a few to about 100 m deep ( Falciai & Minervini, 1992; Zariquey Álvarez, 1968).