High-abundance
Guides
Oncaeidae
Oncaeidae is a family of microcopepods characterized by small body size, high abundance, and high species diversity across all ocean basins. The family was established by Giesbrecht in 1893 and comprises approximately 115 described species across seven genera. Members occur from surface waters to bathypelagic depths, exhibiting a life strategy fundamentally different from most other pelagic microcopepod families. Their ecological role in marine ecosystems remains incompletely understood despite their numerical importance.