Artistic reconstructions of Fortiforceps foliosa and Sklerolibyon maomima gen

''Sklerolibyon'' is an extinct genus of megacheiran arthropod, known from the Cambrian aged Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. It is a member of the family Jianfengiidae, alongside '' Jianfengia'' and ''

Fortiforceps ''Fortiforceps'' is an extinct genus of Cambrian megacheiran arthropod known from the Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. It was originally described by Hou and Bergström in 1997,X. Hou and J. Bergström. 1997Arthropods of the Lower Cambrian Ch ...

,'' and possibly also ''

Parapeytoia ''Parapeytoia'' was a prehistoric arthropod that lived over 530 million years ago (Cambrian Stage 3) in the Maotianshan shales of prehistoric China. It was interpreted as an anomalocaridid (radiodont) with legs, but later studies reveal it was ...

''. Specimens are around in length. The body is greatly elongated, and head shield is heavily sclerotised, with a pair of spines radiating outward from the sides. Alongside the pair of great appendages, there are a pair of stalked eyes and at least two other pairs of limbs on the cephalon. The trunk has 34 segments with corresponding

biramous The arthropod leg is a form of jointed appendage of arthropods, usually used for walking. Many of the terms used for arthropod leg segments (called podomeres) are of Latin origin, and may be confused with terms for bones: ''coxa'' (meaning hip, plu ...

appendages, with typically megacheiran paddle-shaped exopods. The tail is unknown but like ''Jianfengia'' probably ended in a

telson The telson () is the posterior-most division of the body of an arthropod. Depending on the definition, the telson is either considered to be the final segment of the arthropod body, or an additional division that is not a true segment on accou ...

spine.

References

{{Megacheira Megacheira Cambrian arthropods Cambrian animals of Asia Cambrian Series 2 first appearances Maotianshan shales fossils Fossil taxa described in 2020 Prehistoric arthropod genera