| Onychodictyon Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| O. ferox fossil, Geological Museum of China | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Panarthropoda |
| Phylum: | † Lobopodia |
| Class: | † Xenusia |
| Order: | † Paronychophora |
| Family: | † Onychodictyidae |
| Genus: | † Onychodictyon Hou, Ramsköld, & Bergström, 1991 |
| Type species | |
| Onychodictyon ferox Hou, Ramsköld, & Bergström, 1991 | |
| Species | |
| |
Onychodictyon is a genus of extinct lobopodian known from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales in the Yunnan Province in China. [1] It was characterized by a stout body covered by fleshy papillae and pairs of sclerotized plates with spines, [2] [1] [3] representing part of the diverse "armoured lobopodians" alongside similar forms such as Microdictyon and Hallucigenia . [1]
The maximum length of Onychodictyon is 70 mm (2.8 in). [1] It has a resemblance to Microdictyon (net-like sclerite ornament) [4] but also Aysheaia and tardigrades (basally-fused terminal leg pairs). [5] Each leg has a pair of curved claws that are thought to have aided Onychodictyon in climbing onto other organisms. [6] By having a unique anterior end structure, Onychodictyon may have been a deposit feeder which means that they would scavenge for organic material from the seafloor. [1] Onychodictyon sclerites appear to have molted with some specimens exhibiting perfectly conjoined plates from successive molts. [7]
Onychodictyon is represented by two species: O. ferox from the Chengjiang Biota, and possibly O. spiniferum from Siberia (similar fossils known from Greenland are left in open taxonomy as Onychodictyon sp.), though some consider these synonymous. [8] The species O. gracilis was erected in 2008 based on 3 specimens, which were later confirmed to belong to O. ferox. [3]
