Journal of Crustacean Biology Advance Access published 8 August 2017 Journal of Crustacean Biology The Crustacean Society Journal of Crustacean Biology (2017) 1–39. doi:10.1093/jcbiol/rux070 An updated classification of the freshwater crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidea) of the world, with a complete species list Keith A. Crandall1 and Sammy De Grave2 1Computational Biology Institute, George Washington University, SEH 7000D, 800 22nd St. NW, Washington DC, 20052, USA and Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA; and 2Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW, UK Correspondence: K.A. Crandall; e-mail:
[email protected] (Received 13 May 2017; accepted 16 June 2017) ABSTRACT The freshwater crayfishes are a group of decapod crustaceans that have played a critical role in a diversity of biological studies, from physiology, to ecology, neurobiology, conserva- tion, and evolution. Central to many of these fields of study is the dependence on a robust taxonomic framework for accurate communication relating to species diversity and associated attributes. Despite a huge body of taxonomic work since Linnaeus, there has never been a single, comprehensive taxonomic summary of all the species of crayfish of the world. There has also been an abundance of recent taxonomic work in terms of new species descriptions and taxonomic insights gained from a variety of phylogenetic studies. Here we gather diverse taxonomic and phylogenetic information into a single resource. We develop an updated clas- sification system that includes all the crayfishes worldwide and taxonomic changes to better reflect the current phylogenetic knowledge of the group. We also include all the fossil crayfish taxa for a complete classification of extant and extinct crayfishes.