Fossils explained 39

摘要

The arthropleurids are a group of Palaeozoic, long-bodied, centipede-like arthropods that in one genus -Upper Carboniferous Arthropleura Jordan (Fig. 1) -attained gigantic size. The precise classification and relationships of this group are uncertain. Although obviously of broadly similar morphology to the myriapods (centipedes and millipedes), critical parts of the anatomy, particularly in the head region, are, at best, poorly known. Thus arthropleurids have been regarded as crustaceans, arthropods incertae sedis or a distinct class within the Myriapoda, among others: a myriapod affinity is accepted herein. This uncertainty should be viewed against the backdrop of the ongoing debate of the relationships of higher arthropod groups, which remain ambiguous even when both morphological and molecular data are available. Body fossils of Arthropleura sensu stricto are limited to the Upper Carboniferous (Westphalian A to Stephanian B or C), but a second genus, Eoarthro-pleura Stormer, is known from the Lower Devonian. Trace fossils from the Upper Silurian(?) (or Lower Devonian?) of Newfoundland, and assigned to the ichnogenus Diplichnites Dawson, may have been produced by an Eoarthropleura-like arthropleurid. Morphologically similar trace fossils, considered to have been generated by arthropleurids, are also known from the Devonian, and the Lower and Upper Carboniferous. This article will concentrate mainly on Upper Carboniferous Arthropleura and its purported trace fossils.