Strabopidae is the only

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 ...

of the order Strabopida, a group of

arachnomorph 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 sche ...

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. The order Strabopida contains three valid genera and one doubtful, '' Khankaspis'', ''

Paleomerus ''Paleomerus'' is a genus of strabopid, a group of extinct arthropods. It has been found in deposits from the Cambrian period (Atdabanian epoch). It is classified in the family Strabopidae of the monotypic order Strabopida. It contains two ...

'', '' Parapaleomerus'' and '' Strabops'', all assigned in the family Strabopidae. Previously, it also contained the genera '' Caryon'', '' Lemoneites'' and '' Neostrabops'', but after a study, they were reassigned as a

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the At ...

, a glyptocystitid

echinoderm An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the sea ...

and a

cheloniellid Cheloniellida is a taxon (usually referred to as an order) of extinct Paleozoic arthropods. As of 2018,Wendruff, Andrew James, et al. "New cheloniellid arthropod with large raptorial appendages from the Silurian of Wisconsin, USA." BioRxiv (2018) ...

arthropod, respectively. Paleomeridae was also previously included as a family, but after the discovery of a fourth ''Paleomerus''

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

and its study, Paleomeridae was synonymized into Strabopidae.

References

Strabopida Prehistoric arthropod families Controversial taxa {{paleo-arthropod-stub