| Vetulicolida | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Didazoonidae. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | † Vetulicolia |
| Class: | † Vetulicolida Chen and Zhou, 1997 |
| Order: | † Vetulicolata Hou and Bergström, 1997 |
| Type species | |
| † Vetulicola cuneata Hou, 1987 | |
| Families | |
Vetulicolida is one of the two classes of the enigmatic extinct phylum Vetulicolia. It contains one order, Vetulicolata, which is divided into two families, Vetulicolidae and Didazoonidae. [1]
Traditionally, the Myodocopa and Podocopa have been classified as subclasses within the class Ostracoda, although there is some question about how closely related the two groups actually are. The Myodocopa are defined by possession of a poorly calcified carapace, and 8–9 articles in the exopod of the second antenna. The ventral margin of the carapace is not concave, and the valves do not overlap to a great extent.
Cylindroleberididae is a family of ostracods that shows remarkable morphological diversity. The defining feature is the possession of gills: 7–8 leaf-like pairs at the posterior of the body. Other features common to all species in the family include a "baleen-comb" on both the maxilla and the fifth limb, a sword-shaped coxal endite on the mandible, and the triaenid bristles on the basal endites of the mandible.
Didazoonidae is a family of Vetulicolian chordates containing the species Didazoon haoae and Pomatrum ventralis. Their fossils are from the Maotianshan shales Cambrian Lagerstätte.
Helmetia is an extinct genus of arthropod from the middle Cambrian. Its fossils have been found in the Burgess Shale of Canada and the Jince Formation of the Czech Republic.
Richard John Aldridge was a British palaeontologist and academic, who was Bennett Professor of Geology at the University of Leicester.
Acanthomeridion is an extinct arthropod found in the Chengjiang fauna deposits of China. In 1997, it was placed in its own, monotypic family, Acanthomeridiidae. It is known from eight specimens, all found in China.
Chengjiang is a city located in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, China, just north of Fuxian Lake.
Megacheira is an extinct class of predatory arthropods defined by their possession of spined "great appendages". Their taxonomic position is controversial, with studies either considering them stem-group euarthropods, or stem-group chelicerates. The homology of the great appendages to the cephalic appendages of other arthropods is also controversial. Uncontested members of the group were present in marine environments worldwide from the lower to middle Cambrian.
Acaenoplax is an extinct worm-shaped mollusc known from the Coalbrookdale Formation of Herefordshire, England. It lived in the Silurian period. It was a couple of centimetres long and half a centimetre wide, and comprises serially repeated units with seven or eight shells, and rings of 'spines'.
Nasunaris flata is an extinct genus of ostracods which existed in the United Kingdom during the Silurian period. It was first named by David J. Siveter, Derek E. G. Briggs, Derek J. Siveter and Mark D. Sutton in 2010.
Bradoriida, also called bradoriids, are an extinct order of small marine arthropods with a bivalved carapace, and were globally distributed, forming a significant portion of the Cambrian and Early Ordovician soft-bodied communities.
Xylokorys is a genus of marrellomorph known from two specimens from the Silurian Herefordshire lagerstatte; it filter-fed on mud particles on the sea floor. It is the only marrellomorph known from the Silurian period.
Pauline is a fossil genus of ostracods from the Silurian. Genus contains two species: Pauline avibella found in 425-million-year-old rocks in the Herefordshire Lagerstätte in England near the Welsh Border and Pauline nivisis, known from the Lower Silurian Pentamerus Bjerge Formation of north Greenland.
Prosomapoda is a clade of euchelicerates including the groups Xiphosura and Planaterga, as well as several basal synziphosurid genera. The clade is defined by the lack of exopods of prosomal appendage II-V in the adult instar, where in contrast the exopods of appendage II-V are well-developed in the non-prosomapod euchelicerates Offacolus and Dibasterium.
Thanahita is a genus of extinct lobopodian and known from the middle Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte at the England–Wales border in UK. It is monotypic and contains one species, Thanahita distos. Discovered in 2018, it is estimated to have lived around 430 million years ago and is the only known extinct lobopodian in Europe, and the first Silurian lobopodian known worldwide.
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 retatives are still controversial, and the family consists of at least four genera.
Coalbrookdale Formation, earlier known as Wenlock Shale or Wenlock Shale Formation and also referred to as Herefordshire Lagerstätte in palaeontology, is a fossil-rich deposit (Konservat-Lagerstätte) in Powys and Herefordshire at the England–Wales border in UK. It belongs to the Wenlock Series of the Silurian Period within the Homerian Age. It is known for its well-preserved fossils of various invertebrate animals many of which are in their three-dimensional structures. Some of the fossils are regarded as earliest evidences and evolutionary origin of some of the major groups of modern animals.
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.
Enalikter is an extinct arthropod described from the middle Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte at the England–Wales border in UK. This genus is known from only one species, E. aphson. Enalikter is described as late-living example of Megacheira, "great-appendage arthropod". It subsequently suggested to be an annelid by other researchers, however subsequent studies rejected this interpretation. Its interpretation as megacheiran arthropod has been questioned in later studies.
Enaliktidae is an extinct family of elongate arthropods known from the Silurian and Devonian periods, containing two genera, Enalikter and Bundenbachiellus. Taxonomic positions of the family is uncertain and in its original description it was attributed to the Megacheira, a group of arthropods otherwise known from the Cambrian period, due to them possessing uniramous frontal appendages with whip-like exensions, similar to the great appendages of megacheirans belonging to the family Leanchoiliidae like Leanchoilia. However, their placement as megacheirans has been questioned, as they arguably lack any defining apomorphies of that group, as whether the great appendages of megacheirans and the frontal appendages of enaliktids are homologous is unclear.
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