Cumacea

Cumacea is an order of small marine crustaceans with a narrow, elongated abdomen and a carapace covering the thorax. Many species live in or on seafloor sediments.

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Malacostraca: Malacostraca is the largest class of crustaceans, including crabs, shrimps, lobsters, and several smaller groups. Cumacea belongs to this broad crustacean class.
Oostegite: An oostegite is a plate attached to a thoracic limb that contributes to a female peracarid's brood pouch. Cumacean females use oostegites to form the marsupium that holds embryos.
Benthic ecology: Benthic ecology studies organisms living on, in, or near the bottoms of aquatic environments. Cumaceans are small but common members of marine bottom communities.
Isopoda: Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and diverse marine and freshwater forms. Isopods have a more uniformly segmented body and lack the cumacean combination of enlarged carapace and narrow pleon.
Peracarida: Peracarida is a superorder of malacostracan crustaceans whose females typically carry eggs in a ventral brood pouch. Cumaceans are peracaridans, sharing their characteristic reproductive structure.
Antennule: An antennule is the first pair of sensory appendages on a crustacean's head. Cumaceans use antennules to sense their surroundings, with males often having conspicuously developed ones.
Meiofauna: Meiofauna are small benthic animals that pass through a fine-mesh sieve but are retained by a coarser one. Many cumaceans are collected and studied as part of sediment-dwelling small-animal assemblages.
Amphipoda: Amphipoda is an order of laterally compressed crustaceans that includes many marine and freshwater species. Amphipods usually have a more visibly segmented thorax and abdomen than cumaceans.
Carapace: A carapace is a hard outer covering that shields part or much of an arthropod's body. In cumaceans, the carapace covers the thorax and helps define the body outline.
Uropod: A uropod is a paired appendage at the rear of many crustaceans, often forming part of a tail fan. Cumacean uropods help distinguish groups and are used in swimming and movement.