Paucipodia
Extinct genus of panarthropods
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paucipodia inermis is a lobopodian known from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang lagerstätte.[1]
| Paucipodia inermis Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| |
| Fossil of Paucipodia haikouensis | |
 | |
| Diagrammatic reconstruction | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Panarthropoda |
| Phylum: | †Lobopodia |
| Class: | †Xenusia |
| Order: | †Archonychophora |
| Family: | †Paucipodiidae Hou et al., 2004 |
| Genus: | †Paucipodia Chen, Zhou & Ramsköld, 1995 |
| Species: | †P. inermis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Paucipodia inermis Chen, Zhou & Ramsköld, 1995 | |
Discovery and naming
Description
Gut
Paucipodia’s gut is puzzling; in some places, it is preserved in three dimensions, infilled with sediment; whereas in others it may be flat. These cannot result from phosphatisation, which is usually responsible for three-dimensional gut preservation,[2] for the phosphate content of the guts is under 1% – the contents comprise quartz and muscovite.[1] Its fossils do not suggest it had any sclerites, especially when compared with the related Hallucigenia.[1]
Classification
In a 2016 study redescribing Helenodora, Paucipodia was found to be its closest relative.[3]
The slightly simplified cladogram below is from a 2025 paper by Knecht et al. redescribing the lobopodian Palaeocampa anthrax. In it, Paucipodia was found to be a basal lobopodian[4]
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