150 years after Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ and 100 years after W.T. Calman’s infl uential treatment on crustacean morphology and classifi cation, crustacean phylogenetics remains an active, exciting and controversial fi eld of research. An international symposium held from 7th–11th October 2008 at the University of Rostock attempted to summarize the latest developments. Molecular evidence suggests that crustaceans are paraphyletic with regard to the hexapods, though a few potential apomorphies of Crustacea can still be named. If Crustacea do turn out to be paraphyletic, the name should disappear from formal classifi cations, as simply including hexapods in the group would be tantamount to ignoring the different research histories. Nevertheless, ‘crustaceans’ will remain a colloquial term and crustaceanology (carcinology) an important fi eld of research. Within crustaceans, Branchiopoda and Malacostraca are well supported monophyla. While the internal phylogeny of Branchiopoda seems almost to be settled, it is still highly controversial within Malacostraca, in particular with regard to the peracarid taxa. The same can be said of the Decapoda. It remains uncertain whether the Maxillopoda is monophyletic, and while the monophyly of the Thecostraca is well supported, the origin of Rhizocephala remains enigmatic. Advances have been made in applying molecular systematic techniques to almost all crustacean taxa, but morphological research has also moved on. New morphological techniques provide new insights in our understanding of evolutionary transformations.

Evolutionary morphology, phylogenetics, classifi cation, Tetraconata