The Glypheoidea (containing the glypheoid lobsters), is a group of lobster-like decapod crustaceans which forms an important part of fossil faunas, such as the Solnhofen limestone.

These fossils included taxa such as Glyphea (from which the group takes its name), and Mecochirus, mostly with elongated (often semichelate) chelipeds.

That opinion had to be altered when a single male specimen was discovered in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution in 1975.

Over sixty years later, the specimen was rediscovered, and described by two French scientists as a new genus and species, Neoglyphea inopinata in 1975,[3] meaning "unexpected new Glyphea".

[6] Five families are recognised, containing a total of 21 genera, all but two of which are extinct (extant taxa marked in boldface):[7]