Adelophthalmidae is a family of eurypterids, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Adelophthalmidae is the only family classified as part of the superfamily Adelophthalmoidea, which in turn is classified within the infraorder Diploperculata in the suborder Eurypterina.
The type specimen of Adelophthalmus granosus, the first adelophthalmid ever described.
Fossil of Adelophthalmus imhofi, exhibited at the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt.
Adelophthalmus is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Adelophthalmus have been discovered in deposits ranging in age from the Early Devonian to the Early Permian, which makes it the longest lived of all known eurypterid genera, with a total temporal range of over 120 million years. Adelopththalmus was the final genus of the Eurypterina suborder of eurypterids and consisted the only known genus of swimming eurypterids from the Middle Devonian until its extinction during the Permian, after which the few surviving eurypterids were all walking forms of the suborder Stylonurina.
The type specimen of A. granosus, MB.A. 890, as illustrated in its original description by Hermann Jordan and Hermann von Meyer in 1854. The apparently eyeless carapace can be seen in the bottom-left illustration.
Fossil of A. imhofi, formerly considered to be the type species of the genus Lepidoderma, exhibited at the Senckenberg Museum of Frankfurt.
Fossil of A. mazonensis.
Line drawings depicting the top and bottom sides of a fossil of A. mazonensis.
