Antennipatus in the context of Late Carboniferous


Antennipatus in the context of Late Carboniferous

⭐ Core Definition: Antennipatus

Antennipatus montceauensis is an extinct species of onychophoran, a group colloquially known as velvet worms, from the Montceau-les-Mines lagerstätte of what is now France. The animal is the sole member of its genus and notably the oldest confirmed onychophoran fossil. While known of since the 1980s, Antennipatus was described almost 4 decades later in 2016. Currently, the animal has three described specimens with varying levels of preservation. All of are 305 million years old and date to the Stephanian stage of the Late Carboniferous.

Anatomically, Antennipatus resembles modern velvet worms. The animal had rings of dermal papillae along most of its body, with those on the antennae alternating between wide and narrow bands. On its underside, Antennipatus had a putative ventral mouth that preserved what were likely lip papillae. The animal had stubby legs, and on one specimen, definite slime papillae.

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Antennipatus in the context of Onychophora

Onychophora /ɒnɪˈkɒfərə/ (from Ancient Greek: ονυχής, onyches, "claws"; and φέρειν, pherein, "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (for their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus /pəˈrɪpətəs/ (after the first described genus, 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 is likely to be much 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 known for their mating behaviours and for some species bearing live young.

View the full Wikipedia page for Onychophora
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