furry lobster

{{Short description|Family of crustaceans}}

{{About|the family Synaxidae|the deep-sea decapod discovered in 2005|Kiwaidae}}

{{Paraphyletic group

| image = Blind furry lobster.jpg

| image_caption = Palinurellus gundlachi

| parent = Palinuridae

| auto = yes

| includes =

• Palinurellus
• Palibythus

}}

Furry lobsters (sometimes called coral lobsters) are small decapod crustaceans, closely related to the slipper lobsters and spiny lobsters.{{cite journal |author1=Ferran Palero |author2=Keith A. Crandall|authorlink2=Keith A. Crandall|author3=Pere Abelló |author4=Enrique Macpherson |author5=Marta Pascual |year=2009 |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=152–162 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2008.10.003 |title=Phylogenetic relationships between spiny, slipper and coral lobsters (Crustacea, Decapoda, Achelata) |pmid=18957325}} The antennae are not as enlarged as in spiny and slipper lobsters, and the body is covered in short hairs, hence the name furry lobster. Although previously considered a family in their own right (Synaxidae Spence Bate, 1881), the furry lobsters were subsumed into the family Palinuridae in 1990.{{cite book |url=http://atiniui.nhm.org/pdfs/3839/3839.pdf |title=An Updated Classification of the Recent Crustacea |author1=Joel W. Martin |author2=George E. Davis |year=2001 |pages=1–132 |publisher=Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County |access-date=2010-06-04 |archive-date=2013-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512091254/http://atiniui.nhm.org/pdfs/3839/3839.pdf |url-status=dead }} Subsequent molecular phylogenetics studies have confirmed that the furry lobsters genera don't form a natural group and were both nested among the spiny lobster genera in family Palinuridae. The family now includes the two furry lobster genera and ten spiny lobster genera.{{cite WoRMS |title=Palinuridae |id=106794 |access-date=24 February 2024}}