An insect-like mushroom body in one group of crustaceans, the mantis shrimps (Stomatopoda), suggests either an ancient origin of this center and its reduction and loss in other crustaceans, or an extraordinary example of convergent evolution with the insect mushroom body.

Demonstrating extreme diversity across crustaceans while contrasting with evolutionary stability in insects, mushroom body homologues further underpin the unity of Pancrustacea and shed new light on arthropod brain evolution.

A neuroanatomical analysis of Rimicaris exoculata provides insights into these animal’s brain architecture to illustrate possible adaptations to the hydrothermal vent habitat with its extreme physicochemical conditions.

Dramatic phenotypic divergence of crustacean mushroom bodies map to phylogenetic lineages, thereby offering unexplored opportunities for relating divergent cognitive centers to different ecologies and behavioral repertoires required to negotiate them.