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Pentapantopus
''Pentapantopus'' is a genus of fossil pycnogonid (sea spider). The only known species is ''Pentapantopus vogteli'' from the Hunsrück Slate of Germany. This sea spider was thought to have had five pairs of legs; however, a 2024 study disproved this. It is recognizable by its flatten, tuberculated legs with the first pair having less segments than other sea spiders. Description ''Pentapantopus'' is a relatively small pycnogonid with a measured body length of up to 1.2 cm. It somewhat resembles the Silurian ''Haliestes'', which was used to infer various details that are not well-preserved (e.g. cephalon, palps, ovigers, leg annulations, abdomen) on the former's redescription in 2024. The cephalon is poorly preserved. The narrowed trunk has lateral processes measured as long as wide. The segmentation of the reduced abdomen is unclear, but it might have had 3 segments based on ''Haliestes''. The proboscis was folded underneath its body, which might reflect its mobility. The ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Spider
Sea spiders are marine arthropods of the class (biology), class Pycnogonida, hence they are also called pycnogonids (; named after ''Pycnogonum'', the type genus; with the suffix '). The class includes the only now-living order (biology), order Pantopoda ( ‘all feet’), alongside a few fossil species which could trace back to the early or mid Paleozoic. They are cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan, found in oceans around the world. The over 1,300 known species have leg spans ranging from to over . Most are toward the smaller end of this range in relatively shallow depths; however, they can grow to be quite large in Antarctic and deep-sea gigantism, deep waters. Despite their name and brief resemblance, "sea spiders" are not spiders, nor even arachnids. While some literature around the 2000s suggests they may be a sister group to all other living arthropods, their traditional classification as a member of chelicerates alongside Xiphosura, horseshoe crabs and arachnids has r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pycnogonid Genera
Sea spiders are marine arthropods of the class Pycnogonida, hence they are also called pycnogonids (; named after ''Pycnogonum'', the type genus; with the suffix '). The class includes the only now-living order Pantopoda ( ‘all feet’), alongside a few fossil species which could trace back to the early or mid Paleozoic. They are cosmopolitan, found in oceans around the world. The over 1,300 known species have leg spans ranging from to over . Most are toward the smaller end of this range in relatively shallow depths; however, they can grow to be quite large in Antarctic and deep waters. Despite their name and brief resemblance, "sea spiders" are not spiders, nor even arachnids. While some literature around the 2000s suggests they may be a sister group to all other living arthropods, their traditional classification as a member of chelicerates alongside horseshoe crabs and arachnids has regained wide support in subsequent studies. Morphology Many sea spiders are recognised ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haliestes
''Haliestes'' is a genus of sea spider (pycnogonid) from the Silurian aged Coalbrookdale Formation of England. It contains a single species, ''Haliestes dasos''. The species was first described by David Siveter et al. in 2004. Morphology ''Haliestes'' is a tiny sea spider measured only up to 5.7 mm in body length. Ocular tubercle is evident at the front, but it is unknown if it bore eyes or not. The tubular proboscis facing ventrally below its cephalon. The trunk segments are narrowed. The reduced abdomen was divided by 3 tiny segments. All appendages are well developed. The chelifores featured a robust, upward-facing pincer, connected to the front by a 2-segmented scape. The palps and ovigers are subequal to each other, each possess 9 segments and a hooked terminal claw. The 8 legs are over twice of its body length, sharing some traits with the younger Hunsrück pycnogonids (e.g. ''Palaeoisopus'', '' Pentapantopus'') such as annulated coxa 1, paddle-like segments lined with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeoisopus
''Palaeoisopus'' is a genus of fossil pycnogonid (sea spider). The only known species is ''Palaeoisopus problematicus'' from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate of Germany. It is characterized by several features unusual for a pycnogonid, such as swimming legs of different sizes and a long, segmented abdomen. Discovery ''Palaeoisopus'' is the most common pycnogonid of Hunsrück Slate, with over 80 fossil specimens had been discovered as of 2024. When this arthropod was first described by Broili 1928, it was thought to be an isopod crustacean, hence the name ''Palaeoisopus''. A few years later, it was re-identified as a pycnogonid by the same author. Even so, the anterior and posterior axis was reversed, with the overlapped chelifores and long abdomen being misinterpreted as a round abdomen and an elongated cephalon (head), respectively. This was corrected by Lehmann 1959, which using X-ray to identify cephalic structures such as ovigers and ocular tubercles between the "abdomen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. ''Panthera leo'' (lion) and ''Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e. Phylogeneti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil Taxa Described In 2013
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Though the fossil record is incomplete, numerous studies have demonstrated that there is enough information available to give a good understanding of the pattern of diversification of life on Earth. In addition, the record can predict and fill gaps such as the discovery of ''Tiktaalik'' in the arctic of Canada. Paleontology includes the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are sometimes considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devonian Arthropods Of Europe
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at million years ago ( Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding Carboniferous period at Ma. It is the fourth period of both the Paleozoic and the Phanerozoic. It is named after Devon, South West England, where rocks from this period were first studied. The first significant evolutionary radiation of life on land occurred during the Devonian, as free- sporing land plants (pteridophytes) began to spread across dry land, forming extensive coal forests which covered the continents. By the middle of the Devonian, several groups of vascular plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants ( pteridospermatophytes) appeared. This rapid evolution and colonization process, which had begun during the Silurian, is known as the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hunsrück Slate Fossils
The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past the Rhine and by the Eifel past the Moselle. To the south of the Nahe is a lower, hilly country forming the near bulk of the Palatinate region and all of the, smaller, Saarland. Below its north-east corner is Koblenz. As the Hunsrück proceeds east it acquires north-south width and three notable gaps in its southern ridges. In this zone are multi-branch headwaters including the Simmerbach ending at Simmertal on the southern edge. This interior is therefore rarely higher than above sea level. Peaks and escarpments are principally: the (Black Forest) Hochwald, the Idar Forest, the Soonwald, and the Bingen Forest. The highest mountain is the Erbeskopf (816 m; 2,677 ft), towards the region's south-west. Notable towns are Simmern, Ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stem-group
In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. It is thus a way of defining a clade, a group consisting of a species and all its extant or extinct descendants. For example, Neornithes (birds) can be defined as a crown group, which includes the most recent common ancestor of all modern birds, and all of its extant or extinct descendants. The concept was developed by Willi Hennig, the formulator of phylogenetic systematics, as a way of classifying living organisms relative to their extinct relatives in his "Die Stammesgeschichte der Insekten", and the "crown" and "stem" group terminology was coined by R. P. S. Jefferies in 1979. Though formulated in the 1970s, the term was not commonly used until its reintroduction in 2000 by Graham Budd and Sören Jensen. Contents of the crown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolutionary Grade
A grade is a taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity. The term was coined by British biologist Julian Huxley, to contrast with clade, a strictly phylogenetic unit. Phylogenetics The concept of evolutionary grades arises in the context of phylogenetics: the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups of organisms. These relationships are determined by phylogenetic inference methods that focus on observed heritable traits, such as DNA sequences, protein amino acid sequences, or morphology. The result of such an analysis is a phylogenetic tree—a diagram containing a hypothesis of relationships that reflects the evolutionary history of a group of organisms. Definition of an evolutionary grade An evolutionary grade is a group of species united by morphological or physiological traits, that has given rise to another group that has major differences from the ancestral group's condition, and is thus not considered p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or Extant taxon, extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed ''monophyletic'' (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming Taxon, taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not Monophyly, monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crown-group
In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. It is thus a way of defining a clade, a group consisting of a species and all its extant or extinct descendants. For example, Neornithes (birds) can be defined as a crown group, which includes the most recent common ancestor of all modern birds, and all of its extant or extinct descendants. The concept was developed by Willi Hennig, the formulator of phylogenetic systematics, as a way of classifying living organisms relative to their extinct relatives in his "Die Stammesgeschichte der Insekten", and the "crown" and "stem" group terminology was coined by R. P. S. Jefferies in 1979. Though formulated in the 1970s, the term was not commonly used until its reintroduction in 2000 by Graham Budd and Sören Jensen. Contents of the crown g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
