Portunus Weber 1795
Year: 2026
Type: other
Abstract: Genus Portunus Weber, 1795 TYPE SPECIES. — Cancer pelagicus Linnaeus 1758, by subsequent designation by Rathbun (1926). INCLUDED SPECIES (fossil and extant). — See Sasaki (2023: 10561- 10611). REMARKS Spiridonov (2020: 158, 159) suggested that, with respect to the generic placement of several fossil species attributed to Portunus, some could be assigned to extant genera such as Achelous De Haan, 1833, or Monomia Gistel, 1848, rather than to Portunus sensu stricto. We concur. Some species may belong to different or even entirely new genera. However, such generic assignments must be approached with caution. For instance, Hyžný & Dulai (2021), following Spiridonov (2020), reassigned P. monspeliensis (A. Milne-Edwards, 1860) to Achelous, a move that was not accepted by subsequent authors, who considered the reassignment premature (Garassino et al. 2021: 71). Furthermore, the genus Portunus, as well as the subfamily Portuninae, are subject to ongoing rearrangements based on molecular studies, underscoring the difficulty of drawing definitive conclusions from the available fossil material (e.g., Koch et al. 2022). Therefore, although we agree that the generic position of Portunus catalaunicus could be reconsidered, we retain its current classification until further detailed work, beyond the scope of this paper, can provide definitive conclusions.
Institution: Instituto Geológico y Minero de España
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7224256616