CYTHEROIDEA Baird, 1850

Coimbra, João Carlos, Bergue, Cristianini Trescastro & Ramos, Maria Inês Feijó, 2020, Is Copytus Skogsberg, 1939 (Crustacea: Ostracoda) a neocytherideid? With description of a new family and two new species, Zootaxa 4729 (2), pp. 177-194 : 185-186

Superfamily CYTHEROIDEA Baird, 1850

FAMILY Copytidae fam. nov. Coimbra, Bergue & Ramos

Type-genus. Copytus Skogsberg, 1939 , by present designation.

Diagnosis. Carapace elongate, barely calcified in most species. Dorsal and ventral margins parallel or subparallel, posterior margin rounded, anterior margin rounded or protruded in the ventral half. Surface smooth or ornamented by striae and/or ribs, more rarely partially gently reticulate. Normal pore canals simple, small and scattered, usually poorly visible. Inner lamella wide, more developed anteriorly, in some species narrow ventrally. A conspicuous vestibule occurs at each end margin, larger anteriorly. Marginal pore canals simple and straight, in some species some false. Hinge very long, adont, more rarely weakly lophodont, without terminal teeth. Central muscle scars often weakly developed. Adductors a rounded group of four somewhat ovate or subtriangular imprints. Frontal scar usually ovate, generally relatively far from the adductors. Sexual dimorphism of carapace absent or few developed, with males more elongate.

Remarks. The muscle scars pattern separates Copytidae from all other modern or fossil Cytheroidea . Copytus and Neocytherideis Puri (family Neocytherideidae ) should be closely related based on carapace morphology. However, Copytus has a proportionally longer hinge line, which is not confined to the posterior half of the length, as is the case in most species of Neocytherideis . In Neocytherideis the adductor scars are in a vertical or arcuate line of four imprints with a somewhat U- or V-shaped frontal scar, and the hinge is lophodont. Soft parts few known (see Skogsberg 1939 for the type-species of Copytus ).

Stratigraphic and geographic distributions. As this family currently has only one genus, see the respective data for Copytus .