Pauropodidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

pauropod Pauropods are small, pale, millipede-like arthropods. Around 830 species in twelve families are found worldwide, living in soil and leaf mold. They look rather like centipedes, or millipedes, and may be a sister group of the latter. However, this ...

s. It contains over 20 genera and 650 species, as well as the only known fossil pauropod, ''

Eopauropus ''Eopauropus balticus'' is a prehistoric pauropod known from mid-Eocene Baltic amber. It is the only known pauropod in the fossil record. As pauropods are normally soil-dwelling, their presence in amber Amber is fossilized tree resin tha ...

''. Like most adult pauropods in the order

Tetramerocerata Tetramerocerata is an order of pauropods containing 12 different families and about 480 different species. Tetrameroceratans have a 12 segmented body, 4 segmented antennae, 6 tergites, and 8 to10 legs pairs of legs as adults. Most pauropods in ...

, most adults in this family have 9 pairs of legs, but adults in one genus, ''Cauvetauropus'', have only 8 pairs of legs, and female adults in another genus, ''Decapauropus'', have either 9 or 10 pairs of legs. The first pauropod discovered with more than 9 pairs of legs was the species ''D. cuenoti'', first described with 10 pairs in 1931.

Reference

External links

* Myriapod families Taxa named by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury {{Myriapoda-stub