| Cretoperipatus Temporal range: Cenomanian-Turonian | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Onychophora |
| Family: | Peripatidae |
| Genus: | † Cretoperipatus Engel & Grimaldi, 2002 |
| Species: | †C. burmiticus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Cretoperipatus burmiticus | |
Cretoperipatus burmiticus is an extinct species of velvet worm that is known from the Burmese amber in Kachin state of Myanmar, originating from the Cenomanian-Turonian stages of the Late Cretaceous. [1]
The species can be assigned to one of the modern families, the Peripatidae. [1] While only five leg pairs can be discerned, the information gained from the fossil is enough to preclude assignment to any known modern genus.
The specimen of Cretoperipatus burmiticus is one of the two fossils confidently assigned to as onychophorans, along with the Late Carboniferous species Antennipatus. [2] [3]
It was hypothesised that onychophorans could have migrated from Gondwana to Southeast Asia via the northwards drift of India. Research published in 2016 concluded that the age of Burmese amber supports an earlier migration through Europe. The same study also came to the conclusion that Typhloperipatus williamsoni is the closest extant relative of Cretoperipatus. [4]
Onychophora, commonly known as velvet worms or more ambiguously as peripatus, is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged panarthropods. In appearance they have variously been compared to worms with legs, caterpillars, and slugs. They prey upon other invertebrates, which they catch by ejecting an adhesive slime. Approximately 200 species of velvet worms have been described, although the true number of species is likely greater. The two extant families of velvet worms are Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae. They show a peculiar distribution, with the peripatids being predominantly equatorial and tropical, while the peripatopsids are all found south of the equator. It is the only phylum within Animalia that is wholly endemic to terrestrial environments, at least among extant members. Velvet worms are generally considered close relatives of the Arthropoda and Tardigrada, with which they form the proposed taxon Panarthropoda. This makes them of palaeontological interest, as they can help reconstruct the ancestral arthropod. Only two fossil species are confidently assigned to as onychophorans: Antennipatus from the Late Carboniferous, and Cretoperipatus from the Late Cretaceous, the latter belonging to Peripatidae. In modern zoology, they are particularly renowned for their curious mating behaviours and the bearing of live young in some species.
Schizomida, also known as sprikets or short-tailed whip-scorpions, is an order of arachnids, generally less than 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in length. The order is not yet widely studied. E. O. Wilson has identified schizomids as among the "groups of organisms that desperately need experts to work on them."
The Opiliones are an order of arachnids colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs. As of April 2017, over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, although the total number of extant species may exceed 10,000. The order Opiliones includes five suborders: Cyphophthalmi, Eupnoi, Dyspnoi, Laniatores, and Tetrophthalmi, which were named in 2014.
Ricinulei is a small order of arachnids. Like most arachnids, they are predatory, eating small arthropods. They occur today in west-central Africa (Ricinoides) and the Americas as far north as Texas. As of 2021, 91 extant species of ricinuleids have been described worldwide, all in the single family Ricinoididae. In older works they are sometimes referred to as Podogona. Due to their obscurity they do not have a proper common name, though in academic literature they are occasionally referred to as hooded tickspiders.
Panarthropoda is a proposed animal clade containing the extant phyla Arthropoda, Tardigrada and Onychophora. Panarthropods also include extinct marine legged worms known as lobopodians ("Lobopodia"), a paraphyletic group where the last common ancestor and basal members (stem-group) of each extant panarthropod phylum are thought to have risen. However the term "Lobopodia" is sometimes expanded to include tardigrades and onychophorans as well.
The evolution of spiders has been ongoing for at least 380 million years. The group's origins lie within an arachnid sub-group defined by the presence of book lungs ; the arachnids as a whole evolved from aquatic chelicerate ancestors. More than 45,000 extant species have been described, organised taxonomically in 3,958 genera and 114 families. There may be more than 120,000 species. Fossil diversity rates make up a larger proportion than extant diversity would suggest with 1,593 arachnid species described out of 1,952 recognized chelicerates. Both extant and fossil species are described annually by researchers in the field. Major developments in spider evolution include the development of spinnerets and silk secretion.
Cyphophthalmi is a suborder of harvestmen, colloquially known as mite harvestmen. Cyphophthalmi comprises 36 genera, and more than two hundred described species. The six families are currently grouped into three infraorders: the Boreophthalmi, Scopulophthalmi, and Sternophthalmi.
Epedanidae is a family of the harvestman infraorder Grassatores with about 200 described species. They are the sister group of the Gonyleptoidea.
"Roachoids", also known as "Roachids", "Blattoids" or Eoblattodea, are members of the stem group of Dictyoptera. They generally resemble cockroaches, but most members, unlike modern dictyopterans, have generally long external ovipositors, and are thought not to have laid ootheca like modern dictyopterans.
Typhloperipatus is a genus of velvet worm in the family Peripatidae, containing the sole species Typhloperipatus williamsoni. This genus is notable for containing the only species in the phylum Onychophora found in South Asia. This species is also striking in that this velvet worm shows no trace of eyes.
Peripatidae is a family of velvet worms. The oldest putative representatives of the family herald from Burmese amber dated to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago, with representatives from Dominican and Baltic amber attesting to a broader distribution in the Palaeogene / Neogene; molecular variability suggests that the family's crown group may have arisen in the early Mesozoic.
Tertiapatus is an extinct genus of supposed onychophoran known from Dominican amber deposits. The only known species described is Tertiapatus dominicanus. Other authors have doubted its status as an onchyophoran, due to its arthropodized antennae and articulated exoskeleton, which suggests that it is likely an arthropod.
Succinipatopsis is an extinct genus, originally described as an onychophoran known from Eocene-aged Baltic amber. The only known species is Succinipatopsis balticus. However, other authors have doubted its status as an onchyophoran, due to its skin not closely resembling that of onchyophorans, and lacking any diagnostic characters of the group.
Burmese amber, also known as Myanmar amber, Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The amber is of significant palaeontological interest due to the diversity of flora and fauna contained as inclusions, particularly arthropods including insects and arachnids but also birds, lizards, snakes, frogs and fragmentary dinosaur remains. The amber has been known and commercially exploited since the first century AD, and has been known to science since the mid-nineteenth century. Research on the deposit has attracted controversy due to its alleged role in funding internal conflict in Myanmar and hazardous working conditions in the mines where it is collected.
Uraraneida is an extinct order of Paleozoic arachnids related to modern spiders. Two genera of fossils have been definitively placed in this order: Attercopus from the Devonian of United States and Permarachne from the Permian of Russia. Like spiders, they are known to have produced silk, but lack the characteristic spinnerets of modern spiders, and retain elongate telsons.
This list of fossil arthropods described in 2011 is a list of new taxa of trilobites, fossil insects, crustaceans, arachnids and other fossil arthropods of every kind that have been described during the year 2011. The list only includes taxa at the level of genus or species.
Burmese amber is fossil resin dating to the early Late Cretaceous Cenomanian age recovered from deposits in the Hukawng Valley of northern Myanmar. It is known for being one of the most diverse Cretaceous age amber paleobiotas, containing rich arthropod fossils, along with uncommon vertebrate fossils and even rare marine inclusions. A mostly complete list of all taxa described up until 2018 can be found in Ross 2018; its supplement Ross 2019b covers most of 2019.
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