Galatheoidea

Members of Galatheoidea are distinguished from other squat lobster superfamilies by specific morphological characters: Galatheidae possess a broad, triangular rostrum; Munididae have a trifid or trispinous anterior margin of the carapace; Munidopsidae are characterized by the absence or reduction of the maxilliped 1 flagellum. Porcellanidae (porcelain crabs) are flattened with a crab-like appearance, distinct from the elongated, lobster-like form of other galatheoid families. The superfamily can be distinguished from Chirostyloidea by phylogenetic and morphological evidence, not by convergent squat lobster body form alone.

Habitat varies substantially among families. Galatheidae occur primarily in shallow waters. Munididae inhabit outer shelf and slope depths. Munidopsidae are found in outer slope and abyssal habitats, including cold seep ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean. Porcellanidae occupy shallow marine habitats, often associated with coral reefs and rocky substrates. Some species associate with corals, including scleractinian corals such as Eguchipsammia fistula.

Worldwide distribution across marine environments. The tropical south-west Pacific province is identified as a major diversification center for shallow-water species. Species have dispersed from this center to other Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. Munidopsidae show extensive geographic distributions in the eastern Pacific from Alaska to Chile, with some species restricted to the southeastern Pacific. The superfamily is represented in Chilean waters, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean.

• Eguchipsammia fistula - associated withMunida tuerkayi found associated with live colonies of this scleractinian coral in the Red Sea at 320 m depth
• Dendronephthya - associated withAllomunida magnicheles attached to unidentified soft coral of this genus in the Bay of Bengal at 52 m depth

Postural and locomotory behaviors differ from crayfish due to peripheral differences in skeleton and musculature; these behavioral differences correlate with central nervous system differences. Specific behavioral details for the superfamily as a whole are not well documented.

• ChirostyloideaAlso contains squat lobsters, but not closely related; distinguished by phylogenetic and morphological characters. Chirostyloidea families (Chirostylidae, Kiwaidae) were removed from Galatheoidea based on molecular phylogenetic studies.
• AegloideaFormerly included within Galatheoidea but removed to separate superfamily based on phylogenetic evidence; contains freshwater anomurans (Aeglidae) distinct from marine galatheoids.

• BugGuide
• Wikipedia
• iNaturalist taxon
• NCBI Taxonomy
• Catalogue of Life
• A new classification of the Galatheoidea (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura)
• Neurobiology of the Anomura: Paguroidea, Galatheoidea and Hippoidea
• Phylogeny and evolution of shallow‐water squat lobsters (Decapoda, Galatheoidea) from the Indo‐Pacific
• A review of the Munidopsidae Ortmann, 1898 (Decapoda, Galatheoidea) in Chilean waters, including new records for the Southeastern Pacific
• First record of the rarely known squat lobster, Allomunida magnicheles Baba, 1988 (Decapoda: Anomura: Galatheoidea: Galatheidae) from the Indian Ocean
• Diversity and distribution of Chirostyloidea and Galatheoidea (Decapoda, Anomura) in the Southern Gulf of Mexico
• New record of Lissoporcellana demani Dong & Li, 2014 (Decapoda, Anomura, Galatheoidea, Porcellanidae) from southeast Africa
• A new species of squat lobster of the genus Munida (Galatheoidea, Munididae) from the Red Sea
• Extreme diversity and parasitism of Late Jurassic squat lobsters (Decapoda: Galatheoidea) and the oldest records of porcellanids and galatheids
• First record of a cold-seep squat lobster Munidopsis lauensis Baba and de Saint Laurent, 1992 (Anomura: Galatheoidea) from Indian waters
• Integrative taxonomy reveals a new species of deep-sea squat lobster (Galatheoidea, Munidopsidae) from cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico
• Recent and fossil Isopoda Bopyridae parasitic on squat lobsters and porcelain crabs (Crustacea: Anomura: Chirostyloidea and Galatheoidea), with notes on nomenclature and biogeography
• The complete mitochondrial genome of a rarely reported porcelain crab, Pisidia striata (Anomura, Galatheoidea, Porcellanidae), from the Chinese waters.