Arthropleuridae

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Arthropleurids were Paleozoic arthropods that lived mainly during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. They included the largest land dwelling arthropods (arthropleura) in the history of Earth. These creatures were in the Myriopod and Chilopoda classes, which includes millipedes and centipedes. The order of Arthropleurids is called Arthropleuroidea. Arthropleurids had these physical characteristics:

keeled tergites eight segmented legs exoskeletons (all arthropods)

Arthropleurids had about 30 pairs of legs whose tracks have been found in the Joggins deposit in Nova Scotia, Canada.

[edit] Families of arthropleuridae

Eoathropleuridae - These Arthropleurids lived during the Devonian period. They existed during these subperiods of the Devonian:

Frasnian 377.4 - 576 million years ago Givetian 380.8 - 377.4 million years ago Eifelian 386 - 380.8 million years ago Emsian 390.4 - 386 million years ago

Fossils of Eoarthropleurids have been found in North America and Europe. Some have been unearthed in the British Isles. Eoarthropleurids were often aquatic or semi-aquatic. They were considerably smaller than the later Arthropleurids. Numerous trace fossils (also called ichofossils) of Eoarthropleurids have been found at the Patn-y-Maes Quarry in Wales. This is a sandstone formation.

Arthropleuridae - These Arthropleurids lived during the Carboniferous period. The span of their existence covered these subperiods:

Gzelian 303.9 - 299 mya(million years ago) Kasimovian 306.5 - 303.9 mya Moscovian 311.7 - 306.5 mya Bashkirian 318.1 - 311.7 mya Serpukhovian 326.4 - 318.1 mya The Arthropleurids of this family were fully terrestrial. As I mentioned, some of them were very large. The genus called Arthropleura was definitely a giant. It grew up to 3 meters long. Fossils of Arthropleura have been found in Europe and North America. This genus survived as late as the Asselian (299 - 288.5 million years ago), which was the first subperiod of the Permian.

Microdecemplicidae - The members of this family were very small.Microdecemplex was a genus of this family. Fossils of Microdecemplex date to the middle through upper Devonian. Fossil remains of Microdecemplex have been found in New York State.