Mandibulata, termed "mandibulates", is a
clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...
of
arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...
s that comprises the extant
subphyla
In zoological nomenclature, a subphylum is a taxonomic rank below the rank of phylum.
The taxonomic rank of " subdivision" in fungi and plant taxonomy is equivalent to "subphylum" in zoological taxonomy. Some plant taxonomists have also used th ...
Myriapoda
Myriapods () are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial.
The fossil record of myriapods reaches back into the late Silurian, a ...
(millipedes and others),
Crustacea
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...
and
Hexapoda
The subphylum Hexapoda (from Greek for 'six legs') comprises most species of arthropods and includes the insects as well as three much smaller groups of wingless arthropods: Collembola, Protura, and Diplura (all of these were once considered inse ...
(insects and others). Mandibulata is currently believed to be the sister group of the clade
Arachnomorpha
Arachnomorpha is a proposed subdivision or clade of Arthropoda, comprising the group formed by the trilobites and their close relatives (Artiopoda), Megacheira (which may be paraphyletic) and chelicerates. Under this proposed classification schem ...
, which comprises the rest of arthropods (
Chelicerata
The subphylum Chelicerata (from New Latin, , ) constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda. It contains the sea spiders, horseshoe crabs, and arachnids (including Opiliones, harvestmen, scorpions, spiders, Solifugae, solif ...
and
Trilobita
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil reco ...
). The mandibulates constitute the largest and most varied arthropod group.
The name "Mandibulata" refers to the
mandibles
In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...
or
jaw
The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serv ...
s, which are the characterizing feature of its member arthropods.
Molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
studies suggest that the living arthropods are related as shown in the
cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...
below. Crustaceans do not form a
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...
group as insects and other hexapods have evolved from within them.
[
]
See also
*Atelocerata
Atelocerata 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 ...
*Marrellomorph
Marrellomorpha are an extinct group of arthropods known from the Cambrian to the Early Devonian. They lacked mineralised hard parts, so are only known from areas of exceptional preservation, limiting their fossil distribution. The best known me ...
a
*Myriochelata
The Myriochelata or Paradoxopoda, is a proposed grouping of arthropods comprising the Myriapoda (including millipedes and centipedes) and Chelicerata (including spiders and scorpions). If this proposition holds true, the Myriochelata are the sister ...
*Pancrustacea
Pancrustacea is the clade that comprises all crustaceans and hexapods. This grouping is contrary to the Atelocerata hypothesis, in which Myriapoda and Hexapoda are sister taxa, and Crustacea are only more distantly related. As of 2010, the Pan ...
*Crustaceomorpha
Crustaceomorpha is a proposed clade of arthropods that includes crustaceans and numerous extinct groups. Synapomorphies for the clade are that the larval antenna is a feeding or locomotory organ, and there are six endopodal podomeres in post- ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1633496
Arthropod taxonomy