Stalking the Wild Crustacean: the Significance of Sessile and Stalked Eyes in Phylogeny

Abstract

Phylogenetic relationships within the Crustacea and how they developed, or how and when the crustacean family tree grew its branches, have been a subject that has fascinated zoologists for many years. Much of the tree has disappeared and perhapsm ay never be accuratelyr econstructed,b ut this loss has not deterred imaginative zoologists from attempts to visualize the tree according to their concepts of its original pattern. Interest in crustacean phylogeny is currently high, as is evident from the recent publication of books on this subject (Abele, 1982; Schram, 1983). In the present paper I will not join the tree-builders, but I wish to call attention to a particular scion that some of them may be attempting to graft onto the stock backwards.