Lobopodia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lobopodia are a collection of poorly understood animals from the Early Cambrian -- the beginning of well fossilized animal life. They include animals that are segmented, have (or might have) legs, and do not fit easily into the phylum arthropoda. Basically, these are "worms with legs" and some things that look like their relatives. Most are regarded as related to the arthropods and possibly the onychophora. Depending on the author, the Lobopods might include the anomalocarids, possibly Opabinia, and some onychophore-like forms -- Xenusion, Microdictyon, Aysheaia, Onychodictyon, Paucipoda, Cardiodictyon, Luolishania.
Since Microdictyon has scleritic scales, some authors might include the several other forms from Early Cambrian time that have sclerites. The famous Hallucigenia from the Cambrian-age Burgess Shales was once considered to belong to the family Lobopodia, but is now recognized as an Onychophoran, a relative of the velvet worms.
The known lobopods are fair-sized to large (2 cm up) animals that are largely free-swimming or mobile. To the extent that they are known, many appear to be predators. Little is known about their growth, lifestyle, or relationship to other early lifeforms.
The name lobopodia is also used for lobose pseudopods, found among certain amoeboids.
