Parachela is an order of
tardigrade
Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, th ...
s in the class
Eutardigrada
Eutardigrada are a class of tardigrades (Tardigrada) without lateral appendages. Primarily freshwater bound, some species have secondarily gained the ability to live in marine environments ('' Halobiotus''). By cryptobiosis many species are able ...
. Members of this order have existed for at least 72 million years, up to the present. The oldest known species are ''
Beorn leggi'' and ''
Aerobius dactylus''.
Superfamilies and families
The order includes the following superfamilies and families:
*
Eohypsiboiidea
**
Eohypsibiidae
*
Hypsibioidea
**
Calohypsibiidae
**
Hypsibiidae
**
Microhypsibiidae
**
Ramazzottiidae
*
Isohypsibioidea
**
Hexapodibiidae
**
Isohypsibiidae
*
Macrobiotoidea
**
Beornidae
**
Macrobiotidae
**
Murrayidae
**
Necopinatidae
**
Richtersiidae
References
External links
*
*
Ecdysozoa orders
Polyextremophiles
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