| Parapeytoia Temporal range: Cambrian |
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|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Stem-group: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | †Dinocaridida |
| Order: | †Radiodonta |
| Family: | †Anomalocarididae (?) |
| Genus: | †Parapeytoia Hou, Bergstrom & Ahlberg, 1995 |
| Binomial name | |
| Parapeytoia yunnanensis Hou, Bergstrom & Ahlberg, 1995 |
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Parapeytoia was a prehistoric animal that lived over 530 million years ago that lived in Maotianshan shales of prehistoric China. Like the anomalocarids that it resembled (or was possibly related to), Parapeytoia had two head appendages in front of the also anomalocarid like round mouth, eyes on stalks, and fleshy lobed ending with a fan tail. Parapeytoia had at least 14 pairs of lobes on the sides of the body.
Many scientists debate whether or not Parapeytoia was a true anomalocarid, or rather more closely related to Yohoia or Haikoucaris, because unlike anomalocarids such as Amplectobelua, it had legs. In total Parapeytoia had 13 pairs of legs. The first two pairs of legs it had were almost twice as small as the other legs. But because it had legs, it probably spent most of its time on the ocean floor, hunting (or possibly scavenging) for prey.
The food for Parapeytoia probably included arthropods (including trilobites), worms, early molluscs and other creatures found in the diversity of prehistoric China.
Sclerites interpreted as its mouthparts have since been assigned to a new priapulid worm genus, Omnidens.[1]