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Journal of Paleontology

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MANGROVE-DWELLING CRABS (DECAPODA: BRACHYURA: NECROCARCINIDAE) ASSOCIATED WITH DINOSAURS FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS (CENOMANIAN) OF EGYPT

¹ Department of Geology, Kent State University Stark Campus, 6000 Frank Ave. NW, Canton, Ohio 44720, <cshweit{at}kent.edu>
² Geology Program, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, <lacovara{at}drexel.edu>
³ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, 1 Brookings Dr., St. Louis, Missouri 63130, <smithjb{at}levee.wustl.edu>
⁴ Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, 240 South 33^rd St., Philadelphia 19104, <lamanna{at}sas.upenn.edu>, <mlyon{at}sas.upenn.edu>
⁵ Egyptian Geological Museum, Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority, Athar El Nabi, Maadi, Cairo, Egypt

Brachyuran decapods (crabs) are rarely preserved in coastal environments and have not been documented in close association with dinosaur fossils. A crab referable to the Necrocarcinidae Förster, 1968, is here described from the Cenomanian Bahariya Formation, Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. The occurrence of a crab in a mangrove setting in association with terrestrial vertebrates is extremely unusual in the fossil record. Review of decapod occurrences from the region has resulted in placement of Portunus sp. of Roger (1946) within the Raninidae de Haan, 1839, and Lophoraninella cretacea (Dames, 1886) into the Galatheoidea Samouelle, 1819. The crabs of the Bahariya Formation were probably scavengers, feeding on vegetation and other organic material and were possibly a food source for fish and other vertebrates and invertebrates in the environment.

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