Enaliktidae

Enaliktidae is an extinct family of elongate arthropods known from the Silurian and Devonian periods, containing two genera, Enalikter and Bundenbachiellus. Taxonomic positions of the family is uncertain and in its original description it was attributed to the Megacheira, a group of arthropods otherwise known from the Cambrian period, due to them possessing uniramous frontal appendages with whip-like exensions, similar to the great appendages of megacheirans belonging to the family Leanchoiliidae like Leanchoilia.[1] However, their placement as megacheirans has been questioned, as they arguably lack any defining apomorphies of that group, as whether the great appendages of megacheirans and the frontal appendages of enaliktids are homologous is unclear.[2]

Enaliktidae
Temporal range:
Virtual reconstructions of Enalikter
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Megacheira (?)
Family: Enaliktidae
Siveter, Briggs, Siveter, Sutton, Legg & Joomun, 2014
Genera[1]

References

  1. Siveter, Derek J.; Briggs, Derek E. G.; Siveter, David J.; Sutton, Mark D.; Legg, David; Joomun, Sarah (2014-03-07). "A Silurian short-great-appendage arthropod". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 281 (1778): 20132986. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.2986. PMC 3906945. PMID 24452026.
  2. Aria, Cédric (October 2022). "The origin and early evolution of arthropods". Biological Reviews. 97 (5): 1786–1809. doi:10.1111/brv.12864. ISSN 1464-7931. PMID 35475316. S2CID 243269510.
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