Atelocerata

Atelocerata Heymons, 1901[1] is a proposed clade of arthropods that includes Hexapoda (insects and a few related taxa) and Myriapoda (millipedes, centipedes, and similar taxa), but excludes Crustacea (such as shrimp and lobsters) and Chelicerata (such as spiders and horseshoe crabs). Some authors use the name interchangeably with Uniramia and Tracheata.

It is an extensive division of arthropods comprising all those which breathe by tracheae, as distinguished from Crustacea, which breathe by means of gills.

The status of Atelocerata as a true clade is now doubted. Some recent authors have viewed the crustaceans as more closely related to hexapods than myriapods are.[2] If this is true, then characters shared by hexapods and myriapods, but not crustaceans, must be the result of either convergence, or secondary loss in the Crustacea.[3]

References

  1. ^ Richard Heymons (1901). Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Scolopender. 33. Stuttgart: Erwin Nägele. 1–244, tables i–viii. http://www.archive.org/details/dieentwicklungsg00heym. 
  2. ^ Guillaume Lecointre & Hervé Le Guyader (2006). The Tree of Life: A Phylogenetic Classification. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674021839. 
  3. ^ Maximilian J. Telford & Richard H. Thomas (1995). "Demise of the Atelocerata?". Nature 376 (6536): 123–124. doi:10.1038/376123a0.