Lobopodians are members of the informal group Lobopodia, or the formally erected phylum Lobopoda Cavalier-Smith (1998). They are panarthropods with stubby legs called lobopods, a term which may also be used as a common name of this group as well. While the definition of lobopodians may differ between literatures, it usually refers to a group of soft-bodied, marine worm-like fossil panarthropods such as Aysheaia and Hallucigenia.
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.
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.
Tullimonstrum, colloquially known as the Tully monster or sometimes Tully's monster, is an extinct genus of soft-bodied bilaterian animal that lived in shallow tropical coastal waters of muddy estuaries during the Pennsylvanian geological period, about 300 million years ago. A single species, T. gregarium, is known. Examples of Tullimonstrum have been found only in the Essex biota, a smaller section of the Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois, United States. Its classification has been the subject of controversy, and interpretations of the fossil have likened it to molluscs, arthropods, conodonts, worms, tunicates, and vertebrates. This creature had a mostly cigar shaped body, with a triangular tail fin, two long stalked eyes, and a proboscis tipped with a mouth-like appendage. Based on the fossils, it seems this creature was a nektonic carnivore that hunted in the ocean’s water column. When Tullimonstrum was alive, Illinois was a mixture of ecosystems like muddy estuaries, marine environments, and rivers and lakes. Fossils of other organisms like crustacean Belotelson, the cnidarian Essexella, and the elasmobranch fish Bandringa have been found alongside Tullimonstrum.
The Mazon Creek fossil beds are a conservation lagerstätte found near Morris, in Grundy County, Illinois. The fossils are preserved in ironstone concretions, formed approximately 309 million years ago in the mid-Pennsylvanian epoch of the Carboniferous period. These concretions frequently preserve both hard and soft tissues of animal and plant materials, as well as many soft-bodied organisms that do not normally fossilize. The quality, quantity and diversity of fossils in the area, known since the mid-nineteenth century, make the Mazon Creek lagerstätte important to paleontologists attempting to reconstruct the paleoecology of the sites. The locality was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
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.
Euphoberia is an extinct genus of millipede from the Pennsylvanian epoch of the Late Carboniferous, measuring up to 15 centimetres (5.9 in) in length, that is small in Euphoberiidae which contains species with length about 30 centimetres (12 in). Fossils have been found in Europe and North America.
Pohlsepia mazonensis is a species of fossil organism with unknown affinity. Although it was originally identified as an extinct cephalopod, later studies denied that interpretation. The species is known from a single exceptionally preserved fossil discovered in the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Francis Creek Shale of the Carbondale Formation, north-east Illinois, United States.
Protophasma is an extinct genus of Protorthopteran insect from the Carboniferous of Europe and North America.
Cephalerpeton is an extinct genus of "protorothyridid" eureptile known from the Late Carboniferous of Illinois.
Essexella is an extinct genus of cnidarian known from Late Carboniferous fossils; it contains a single species, E. asherae. It is one of the most recurrent organisms in the Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois; in the Essex biota of Mazon Creek, it consists of 42% of all fossil finds. Essexella was originally described as a jellyfish, but was recently redescribed as a sea anemone. The scientists on the "anemone" side of the debate made a book as early as 2017, but it was ignored until the same authors made a proper scientific paper in 2023.
Macroneuropteris is a genus of Carboniferous seed plants in the order Medullosales. The genus is best known for the species Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri, a medium-size tree that was common throughout the late Carboniferous Euramerica. Three similar species, M. macrophylla, M. britannica and M. subauriculata are also included in the genus.
Bandringa is an extinct genus of Elasmobranch known from the Pennsylvanian subperiod of the Carboniferous period that was part of the monotypic family Bandringidae. There is currently a single known species, B. rayi, described in 1969. It is known from exceptionally preserved individuals found in the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte of Illinois which dates back to the late Moscovian stage.
Mazothairos is an extinct genus of very large insect from the Carboniferous period. It was a member of the order Palaeodictyoptera. Although it is only known from very fragmentary remains from a single fossil, it is estimated to have had a wingspan of about 56 centimeters (22 in), making it one of the largest-known insects, only being rivaled in size by the largest members of the order Meganisoptera, such as Meganeura and Meganeuropsis.
Joermungandr is an extinct genus of recumbirostran tetrapod from the Late Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois. It currently contains a single species, Joermungandr bolti. Like many other recumbirostrans, the body is elongated, which is likely an adaptation for fossoriality.
Luolishania is an extinct genus of lobopodian panarthropod and known from the Lower Cambrian Chiungchussu Formation of the Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, China. A monotypic genus, it contains one species Luolishania longicruris. It was discovered and described by Hou Xian-Guang and Chen Jun-Yuan in 1989. It is one of the superarmoured Cambrian lobopodians suspected to be either an intermediate form in the origin of velvet worms (Onychophora) or basal to at least Tardigrada and Arthropoda. It is the basis of the family name Luolishaniidae, which also include other related lobopods such as Acinocricus, Collinsium, Facivermis, and Ovatiovermis. Along with Microdictyon, it is the first lobopodian fossil discovered from China.
Hallucigeniidae is a family of extinct worms belonging to the group Lobopodia that originated during the Cambrian explosion. It is based on the species Hallucigenia sparsa, the fossil of which was discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1911 from the Burgess Shale of British Columbia. The name Hallucigenia was created by Simon Conway Morris in 1977, from which the family was erected after discoveries of other hallucigeniid worms from other parts of the world. Classification of these lobopods and their relatives are still controversial, and the family consists of at least four genera.
Carbotubulus is a genus of extinct worm belonging to the group Lobopodia and known from the Carboniferous Carbondale Formation of the Mazon Creek area in Illinois, US. A monotypic genus, it contains one species Carbotubulus waloszeki. It was discovered and described by Joachim T. Haug, Georg Mayer, Carolin Haug, and Derek E.G. Briggs in 2012. With an age of about 300 million years, it is the first long-legged lobopodian discovered after the period of Cambrian explosion.
Weygoldtina is an extinct genus of tailless whip scorpion known from Carboniferous period, and the only known member of the family Weygoldtinidae. It is known from two species described from North America and England and originally described in the genus Graeophonus, which is now considered a nomen dubium.
Tyrannophontes is an extinct genus of mantis shrimp that lived during the late Carboniferous period in what is now the Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois. It is the only genus in the family Tyrannophontidae. The type species, T. theridion, was described in 1969 by Frederick Schram. A second, much larger species, T. gigantion, was also named by Schram in 2007. Another species, T. acanthocercus from the Bear Gulch Limestone of Montana, was formerly assigned to Tyrannophontes, but has now been moved to the genus Daidal.
