''Palaeosoma'' is an extinct genus of

archipolypoda Archipolypoda is an extinct group of millipedes known from fossils in Europe and North America and containing the earliest known land animals. The Archipolypoda was erected by Scudder (1882) but redefined in 2005 with the description of sever ...

n millipedes from the

upper Carboniferous Upper may refer to: * Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot * Stimulant Stimulants (also often referred to as psychostimulants or colloquially as uppers) is an overarching term that covers many drugs including those ...

of England and Poland. Individuals grew to nearly long and possessed defensive glands (

ozopores An ozopore is the opening of a defensive gland present in some arthropods, notably in millipedes of the order Polydesmida Euphoberiidae Euphoberiidae is an extinct family of archipolypodan millipedes known from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Europe and North America. The family includes relatively large millipedes measuring up to long bearing distinctive spines and were the dominan ...

, which contains species with prominent spines, but are now classified in their own family (Paleosomatidae) and own order (Palaeosomatida), as they lack spines and have a combination of features not seen in other Paleozoic millipedes.Hannibal, J. (2005
A new occurrence of the millipede ''Palaeosoma'' (Archipolypoda) in the Carboniferous of Silesia, Poland, and its implications for the distribution of millipede genera in the tropics of Euroamerica during the Pennsylvanian
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.

References

†Palaeosoma Prehistoric myriapod genera Carboniferous myriapods Fossil taxa described in 1919 Fossils of Poland Fossils of Great Britain {{Paleo-myriapod-stub