Sklerolibyon

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Sklerolibyon
Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3
Holotype specimen
Diagrammatic reconstruction
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Megacheira
Family: Jianfengiidae
Genus: Sklerolibyon
Aria et al., 2020
Species:
S. maomima
Binomial name
Sklerolibyon maomima
Aria et al., 2020
Restoration of Sklerolibyon (right) and close relative Fortiforceps (left)

Sklerolibyon is an extinct genus of megacheiran arthropod, known from the Cambrian aged Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. It is a member of the family Jianfengiidae, alongside Jianfengia and Fortiforceps, and possibly also Parapeytoia. Specimens are around 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) in length. The body is greatly elongated, and head shield is heavily sclerotised, with a pair of spines radiating outward from the sides. Alongside the pair of great appendages, there are a pair of stalked eyes and at least two other pairs of limbs on the cephalon. The trunk has 34 segments with corresponding biramous appendages, with typically megacheiran paddle-shaped exopods. The tail is unknown but like Jianfengia probably ended in a telson spine.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Aria, Cédric; Zhao, Fangchen; Zeng, Han; Guo, Jin; Zhu, Maoyan (December 2020). "Fossils from South China redefine the ancestral euarthropod body plan". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 20 (1): 4. doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1560-7. ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 6950928. PMID 31914921.