The Archidesmida is an extinct
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
of
millipedes known from fossils from the
Devonian period of Europe and North America. Archidesmidans have broad flat keels (
paranota) extending from their body segments, and a modified pair of legs on the 8th segment that may have been involved in mating, similar to the
gonopods of living millipedes which insert sperm into females. Alternately, the modified legs may have been used to grasp onto partners during mating.
References
Prehistoric arthropod orders
Millipede orders
Devonian myriapods
Late Devonian animals
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