| Xyloiuloidea | |
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| Xyloiulus mazonus | |
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| Superfamily: | †Xyloiuloidea Cook, 1895 |
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Xyloiuloidea is an extinct superfamily ofmillipedes that existed from theLower Devonian through theUpper Pennsylvanian period in Europe and North America.
Xyloiuloids are more or less cylindrical, withsternites,pleurites, andtergites of eachbody segment fused into a complete ring. Adults possess 40 to 50 body rings. The legs are no longer than half the height of the body. The body surface is marked by small parallel grooves (striations), which vary in surface coverage between xyloiuloid families.[1]
Xyloiuloidea comprises four families:
The taxonomic history of Xyloiuloidea begins withOrator F. Cook designating the familyXyloiulidae in 1895. In 1969,Richard L. Hoffman established the familiesNyraniidae andPlagiascetidae, and placed all three extinct families in the extant (still-living) orderSpirobolida, as suborder "Xyloiulidea".[2] In 2006, two new species were described and placed in the new familyGaspestriidae, and group was reassigned as a superfamily of uncertain status (incertae sedis) within thejuliform millipedes, a group that includes the cylindrical, fused-bodied orders Spirobolida,Spirostreptida, andJulida.[1]
Orders of the classDiplopoda(millipedes) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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