Strabopidae

Strabopidae
Temporal range: Cambrian
Fossil of Strabops thacheri.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
(unranked):
Arachnomorpha
Order:
†Strabopida

Hou & Bergström, 1997
Family:
†Strabopidae

Gerhardt, 1932
Type species
†Strabops thacheri
Beecher, 1901
Genera

Strabopidae is the only family of the order Strabopida, an extinct group of arthropods known from the Cambrian period.[1]

The order Strabopida contains three valid genera and one doubtful, Khankaspis, Paleomerus, Parapaleomerus and Strabops, all assigned in the family Strabopidae.[2] Previously, it also contained the genera Caryon, Lemoneites and Neostrabops, but after a study, they were reassigned as a trilobite, a glyptocystitid echinoderm and a cheloniellid arthropod, respectively.[2]

Paleomeridae was also previously included as a family, but after the discovery of a fourth Paleomerus specimen and its study, Paleomeridae was synonymized into Strabopidae.[3] Although often suggested to be closely related to aglaspidids due to their similar morphology, their exact phylogenetic placement is uncertain due to the poor preservation of all known strabopids. A 2013 attempt to place them in a phylogenetic analysis recovered them as part of a polytomy with megacheirans, marrellomorphs, crustaceans and artiopodans.[1] Still, strabopids are often classified as part of the clade Arachnomorpha.[3] In fact, Dunlop & Selden (1998) defined Paleomerus as "perhaps the best model of a primitive arachnomorph".[4]

  1. ^ a b Ortega-Hernández, Javier; Legg, David A.; Braddy, Simon J. (February 2013). "The phylogeny of aglaspidid arthropods and the internal relationships within Artiopoda". Cladistics. 29 (1): 15–45. doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.2012.00413.x. PMID 34814371.
  2. ^ a b Javier Ortega-Hernández; Simon J. Braddy; Štěpán Rak (9 March 2010). "Trilobite and xiphosuran affinities for putative aglaspidid arthropods Caryon and Drabovaspis, Upper Ordovician, Czech Republic". Lethaia. 43 (3): 427–431. Bibcode:2010Letha..43..427O. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.2010.00216.x.
  3. ^ a b O. Erik Tetlie; Rachel A. Moore (2004). "A new specimen of Paleomerus hamiltoni (Arthropoda; Arachnomorpha)". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences. 94 (3): 195–198. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.717.1248. doi:10.1017/S0263593300000602. S2CID 129086749.
  4. ^ Dunlop, J. A.; Selden, Paul A. (1998). "The early history and phylogeny of the chelicerates". Arthropod Relationships. Vol. 55. p. 229. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-4904-4_17. ISBN 978-94-010-6057-8. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)