Morphology of the Resting Eggs of the Australian endemic Fairy Shrimp Australobranchipus (Branchiopoda: Anostraca: Branchipodidae): Similarities and differences from other anostracans

Eggs in large Branchiopoda are often diagnostic of species and may show some phyletic relationships. Those of the two species of Australobranchipus are described and are easily separable from each other and are particularly distinctive among Australian anostracans, all unrelated. Within its family, the Branchiopodidae however, there is some similarity to two African genera, but not Eurasian species, indicative perhaps of a gondwanan connection.