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ARTHROPODA |--Trilobita `--Euarthropoda |--Myriapoda | `--Chilopoda `--+--Chelicerata | `--Arachnida `--Pancrustacea |
Introduction Phylum Schizoramia Hou & Bergström, 1997 Links |
The Euarthropoda were originally conceived as "Schizoramia": those arthropods that possess branched appendages as opposed to those with only a simple unbranched limb ("uniramous"). That arrangement looked like this:
<==o ARTHROPODA
|--o SCHIZORAMIA
| |-- CHELICERATA
| `-- CRUSTACEA
`--o ATELOCERATA/UNIRAMIA
|-- MYRIAPODA
`-- HEXAPODA
The above cladogram shows the Schizoramia as sister group to the Myriapoda + Hexapoda (see rival phylogenies). However, we follow the "Pancrustacea" school of thought, which unites hexapods and crustaceans. To provide some stability to the region, it is useful to have a clade which unites all four living branches of the arthropods. This is it.
Many forms that occur in the Chengjiang lagerstätten have been described by Jan Bergström and Hou Xianguang (the discoverer of the Chengjiang fauna), who follow an intuitive "key-character" approach. In their monograph, Hou & Bergström present the following subdivisions of the Schizoramia, including two new superclasses, the Proschizoramia and the Lamellipedia:
Superclass: Proschizoramia
Class: Yunnanata
Class: Paracrustacea
Class: Megacheira
Class: Sanctacaridea
Superclass: Crustaceomorpha
Class: Pseudocrustacea (incl. Agnostida)
Class: Crustacea
Superclass: Lamellipedia
Class: Marellomorpha
Class: Artiopoda
Class: Trilobita
Class: Chelicerata
Note that much of this arrangement is not accepted by many workers in this field
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page uploaded 7 May 2002
checked ATW051224
page by M. Alan Kazlev
last modified ATW060216
this material may be freely used for non-commercial purposes