| Parachela Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Hypsibius dujardini | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Tardigrada |
| Class: | Eutardigrada |
| Order: | Parachela |
| Superfamilies and families | |
See text | |
Parachela is an order of tardigrades in the class Eutardigrada. Members of this order have existed for at least 72 million years, up to the present. The oldest known species are Beorn leggi and Aerobius dactylus . [2] [3]
The order includes the following superfamilies and families:
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. However, other genera like Kerygmachela and Pambdelurion are often referred to as “gilled lobopodians”.
Eutardigrada are a class of tardigrades (Tardigrada) without lateral appendages. Primarily freshwater bound, some species have secondarily gained the ability to live in marine environments (Halobiotus). By cryptobiosis many species are able to live temporarily in very dry environments. More than 700 species have been described.
Aysheaia is an extinct genus of soft-bodied lobopodian, known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada
Amblypygi is an order of arachnids also known as whip spiders or tailless whip scorpions, not to be confused with whip scorpions or vinegaroons that belong to the related order Thelyphonida. The name "amblypygid" means "blunt tail", a reference to a lack of the flagellum that is otherwise seen in whip scorpions. Amblypygids possess no silk glands or venom. They rarely bite if threatened, but can grab fingers with their pedipalps, resulting in thorn-like puncture injuries.
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 Cupedidae are a small family of beetles, notable for the square pattern of "windows" on their elytra, which give the family their common name of reticulated beetles.
Myxophaga is the second-smallest suborder of the Coleoptera after Archostemata, consisting of roughly 65 species of small to minute beetles in four families. The members of this suborder are aquatic and semiaquatic, and feed on algae.
Parasitiformes are a superorder of Arachnids, constituting one of the two major groups of mites, alongside Acariformes. Parasitiformes has, at times, been classified at the rank of order or suborder.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1964.
Tardigrades, known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär. In 1777, the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani named them Tardigrada, which means "slow steppers".
The Ommatidae are a family of beetles in the suborder Archostemata. The Ommatidae are considered the extant beetle family that has most ancestral characteristics. There are only seven extant species, confined to Australia and South America. However, the geographical distribution was much wider during the Mesozoic spanning across Eurasia and Australia, suggesting that they were widespread on Pangea. So far, over 26 extinct genera containing over 170 species of these beetles have been described. Three extant genera have been assigned to this family: Omma,Tetraphalerus and Beutelius. The family is considered to be a subfamily of Cupedidae by some authors, but have been found to be more closely related to Micromalthidae in molecular phylogenies. A close relationship with Micromalthidae is supported by several morphological characters, including those of the mandibles and male genitalia. Due to their rarity, their ecology is obscure, it is likely that their larvae feed on deadwood.
Zoologischer Anzeiger – A Journal of Comparative Zoology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal specialising in the field of comparative zoology. It is included in a number of bibliographic databases:
The Scleronychophora or armoured lobopods are a group of lobopodians that bear a robust dorsal armature of paired plates.
Tactopoda or Arthropodoidea is a proposed clade of ecdysozoan animals that includes the phyla Tardigrada and Euarthropoda, supported by various morphological observations. The cladogram below shows the relationships implied by this hypothesis.
Burmese amber, also known as 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 the potential role of the amber trade in funding internal conflict in Myanmar and hazardous working conditions in the mines where it is collected.
Beorn is an extinct genus of tardigrade and the first known fossil tardigrade, discovered c. 1940 and described in 1964 from Late Cretaceous amber from Manitoba, Canada. The genus contains a single species, B. leggi. It was originally classified as the only member of its family, the Beornidae, but was later reclassified as belonging to the Hypsibiidae. It is one of three fossil tardigrades known from the Cretaceous, the others being Milnesium swolenskyi from the Turonian New Jersey amber and Aerobius from the same amber piece as Beorn. The only other confidently known fossil tardigrade is the Miocene Paradoryphoribius from the Dominican Republic.
Milnesium swolenskyi is a species of tardigrade from the Cretaceous period. It, Beorn and Paradoryphoribius are the only known tardigrade genera in the fossil record. The type specimen AMNH NJ-796 was found in Turonian New Jersey amber, from about 93.9 to 89.8 million years ago (mya).
Sejida is a suborder of mites in the order Mesostigmata. There are about 5 families and 13 described species in Sejida. The oldest known record of the group is an indeterminate deutonymph belonging to Sejidae from the mid Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian) aged Burmese amber of Myanmar.
Paradoryphoribius is an extinct genus of tardigrades from the order Parachela. It is the third fossil tardigrade to be named, described in 2021 from Miocene Dominican amber from the Dominican Republic. The type, and currently only species, is P. chronocaribbeus. Paradoryphoribius is the first extinct tardigrade known from the Cenozoic and is also the first tardigrade known from the Miocene. It has a length of 539 microns.
Aerobius is a genus of extinct tardigrades of the superfamily Hypsibioidea. The genus contains a single species, A. dactylus, known from a single individual preserved in amber. The Aerobius holotype is preserved in the same piece of Late Cretaceous amber as Beorn, another extinct tardigrade. The specimen was found near Cedar Lake in Manitoba, Canada.
Media related to Parachela at Wikimedia Commons
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