Lobopodia
Lobopodians are members of the informal group Lobopodia (from the Greek, meaning "blunt feet"), 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.
| Lobopodia Temporal range: Descendant taxa Onychophora, Tardigrada, and Euarthropoda survive to Recent, possible Ediacaran ichnofossils | |
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| Reconstruction of various lobopodians. 1: Microdictyon sinicum, 2: Diania cactiformis, 3: Collinsovermis monstruosus, 4: Luolishania longicruris, 5: Onychodictyon ferox, 6: Hallucigenia sparsa, 7: Aysheaia pedunculata, 8: Antennacanthopodia gracilis, 9: Facivermis yunnanicus, 10: Paucipodia inermis, 11: Jianshanopodia decora, 12: Hallucigenia fortis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Subkingdom: | Eumetazoa |
| Clade: | ParaHoxozoa |
| Clade: | Bilateria |
| Clade: | Nephrozoa |
| (unranked): | Protostomia |
| Superphylum: | Ecdysozoa |
| (unranked): | Panarthropoda |
| Phylum: | †"Lobopodia" Snodgrass 1938 |
| Groups included | |
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| Cladistically included but traditionally excluded taxa | |
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Crown-group Euarthropoda | |
| Synonyms | |
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The oldest near-complete fossil lobopodians date to the Lower Cambrian; some are also known from Ordovician, Silurian and Carboniferous Lagerstätten. Some bear toughened claws, plates or spines, which are commonly preserved as carbonaceous or mineralized microfossils in Cambrian strata. The grouping is considered to be paraphyletic, as the three living panarthropod groups (Arthropoda, Tardigrada and Onychophora) are thought to have evolved from lobopodian ancestors.