Succinipatopsis

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Succinipatopsis
Temporal range: Eocene
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Onychophora
Family: Succinipatopsidae
Poinar, 2000
Genus: Succinipatopsis
Poinar, 2000
Species:
S. balticus
Binomial name
Succinipatopsis balticus
Poinar, 2000

Succinipatopsis is an extinct genus, originally described as an onychophoran known from Eocene-aged Baltic amber. The only known species is Succinipatopsis balticus. [1] 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. [2]

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Onychophora, commonly known as velvet worms or more ambiguously as peripatus, is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged animals. 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 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.

<i>Xenusion</i> Extinct genus of panarthropods

Xenusion auerswaldae is an early lobopodian known from two specimens found in glacial erratics on the Baltic coast of Germany. They probably originated in the Kalmarsund Sandstone of Southern Sweden, which was deposited in the Lower Cambrian. It is the oldest currently known lobopodian with soft body fossils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panarthropoda</span> Animal taxon

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.

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Peripatopsidae is one of the two living velvet worm families. This family includes more than 140 described species distributed among 41 genera, but some authorities deem only 131 of these species to be valid. The French zoologist Eugène Louis Bouvier proposed this family in 1905 with Peripatopsis as the type genus.

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Euperipatoides kanangrensis is a species of velvet worm of the Peripatopsidae family, described in 1996 from specimens collected in Kanangra-Boyd National Park, New South Wales. This species has 15 pairs of legs in both sexes. It is endemic to Australia. The embryonic development of Euperipatoideskanangrensis has been described. This species is viviparous. This species is used as model organism for the last common ancestor of the Panarthropoda. It resembles fossil Cambrian lobopodians.

Micropalaeosoma balticus was reported as an extinct, fossil turbellarian flatworm known from Baltic amber of Kaliningrad, Russia, that lived approximately 40 million years ago. It measured approximately 1.5 mm in length. It was considered the oldest and most complete free-living flatworm body fossil. However, much older flatworm fossils have been reported and it has been re-interpreted as a pseudo-inclusion.

<i>Occiperipatoides</i> Genus and species of velvet worm

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<i>Epiperipatus biolleyi</i> Species of velvet worm

Epiperipatus biolleyi is a species of velvet worm in the Peripatidae family. This species is red, without any pattern, on its dorsal surface. Females of this species have 28 to 32 pairs of legs; males have 25 to 30. Females range from 18 mm to 75 mm in length, with a mean length of 52 mm, whereas males range from 18 mm to 55 mm, with a mean length of 38 mm. The type locality is in Costa Rica.

<i>Tasmanipatus</i> Genus and species of velvet worm

Tasmanipatus barretti, the giant velvet worm, is a species of velvet worm in the Peripatopsidae family. It is the sole species in the genus Tasmanipatus and is ovoviviparous.

<i>Peripatopsis moseleyi</i> Species of velvet worm

Peripatopsis moseleyi is a species of velvet worm in the Peripatopsidae family. Males of this species have 20 to 24 pairs of legs with claws ; females have 19 to 23 pairs of legs with claws. Females range from 11 mm to 75 mm in length, whereas males range from 9 mm to 50 mm. The type locality is in South Africa.

<i>Heydenius</i> Extinct genus of roundworms

Heydenius is a collective group genus of fossil mermithid nematodes from the Tertiary period that cannot be placed in extant genera.

The Prussian Formation, previously known as the Amber Formation, is a geologic formation in Prussia, today mostly Kaliningrad Oblast that dates to the Eocene. It holds 90% of the world's amber supply and Baltic amber is found exclusively in the Prussian Formation.

References

  1. Poinar, G. Jr. (2000). "Fossil Onychophorans from Dominican and Baltic Amber: Tertiapatus dominicanus n.g., n.sp. (Tertiapatidae n.fam.) and Succinipatopsis balticus n.g., n.sp. (Succinipatopsidae n.fam.) with a Proposed Classification of the Subphylum Onychophora". Invertebrate Biology. 119 (1): 104–9. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7410.2000.tb00178.x .
  2. Garwood, Russell J.; Edgecombe, Gregory D.; Charbonnier, Sylvain; Chabard, Dominique; Sotty, Daniel; Giribet, Gonzalo (September 2016). "Carboniferous Onychophora from Montceau-les-Mines, France, and onychophoran terrestrialization". Invertebrate Biology. 135 (3): 179–190. doi:10.1111/ivb.12130. PMC   5042098 . PMID   27708504.