Stylonuroidea

Stylonuroidea
Temporal range: Rhuddanian-Famennian, 443.7–358.9 Ma
Fossil of Stylonurella, a parastylonurid.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Order: Eurypterida
Suborder: Stylonurina
Superfamily: Stylonuroidea
Kjellesvig-Waering, 1959
Type species
Stylonurus powriensis
Page, 1856
Families
Synonyms
  • †Drepanopteroidea Kjellesvig-Waering, 1966

Stylonuroidea is an extinct superfamily of eurypterids, an extinct group of chelicerate arthropods commonly known as "sea scorpions". It is one of four superfamilies classified as part of the suborder Stylonurina.

Stylonuroidea, which lived from the Early Silurian to the Late Devonian, were characterized by their last pair of prosomal (head) appendages, which were developed as walking legs, or less commonly developed as swimming legs with paddles formed by the expansion of the two or three penultimate joints.[1]

  1. ^ Størmer, L 1955. Merostomata. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part P Arthropoda 2, Chelicerata, P36. as Stylonuracea