Onychodictyon
| Onychodictyon Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Onychodictyon ferox fossil from Chengjiang | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| (unranked): | Panarthropoda |
| Phylum: | †"Lobopodia" |
| Class: | †Xenusia |
| Order: | †Paronychophora |
| Family: | †Onychodictyidae |
| Genus: | †Onychodictyon Ramsköld, Hou, 1991 |
| Type species | |
| Onychodictyon ferox Ramsköld, Hou, 1991
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| Species | |
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Onychodictyon is an extinct armored worm known from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales in the Yunnan Province in China. Onychodictyon's segmented body and stubby non-segmented legs place it in the phylum Lobopodia, which includes several other segmented and free swimming animals such as Microdictyon, Cardiodictyon, Luolishania, and Paucipodia.[1]
The maximum length of Onychodictyon is 70 mm (2.8 in) and it possesses a sclerotized head and ten paired sclerotic plates. Each leg appears to have curved claws that are thought to have aided Onychodictyon climb onto other organisms.[2] Onychodictyon sclerites appear to have molted with some specimens exhibiting perfectly conjoined plates from successive molts.[3]
Onychodictyon is represented by two species: O. ferox which has a pair of "antennae" on its "head" and a body with eleven pairs of legs; and O. gracilis which has a blunt front end without appendages and a body with twelve pairs of limbs.[1]
References
- ^ a b Liu, Jianni; Shu, Degan; Han, Jian; Zhang, Zhifei; Zhang, Xingliang (2008). "The lobopod "Onychodictyon" from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte revisited" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 53 (2): 285–292. doi:10.4202/app.2008.0209.
- ^ ""Onychodictyon ferox" Lobopodian Fossil from Chengjiang". The Virtual Fossil Museum. The Virtual Fossil Museum. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
- ^ Topper, Timothy; Skovsted, Christian; Peel, John; Harper, David (2013). "Molting in the lobopodian "Onychodictyon" from the lower Cambrian of Greenland". Lethaia: n/a. doi:10.1111/let.12026.
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