Artiopoda

Artiopoda is a clade of extinct arthropods that includes trilobites and their close relatives. It was erected by Hou and Bergström in 1997 to encompass a wide diversity of arthropods that would traditionally have been assigned to the Trilobitomorpha. Trilobites, in part due to abundance of findings owing to their mineralized exoskeletons, are by far the best recorded, diverse, and long lived members of the clade. Other members, which lack mineralised exoskeletons, are known mostly from Cambrian deposits.

==Description== left|thumb|Morphology of Cambrian artiopod Retifacies, showing the morphology of the limbs (E, F) Key for limb morphology: exopod (exo) exite (exi) protopodite (pt) podomere (pd) spine/setae (s) terminal claw (tc) According to Stein and Selden (2012) artiopods are recognised by the possession of filiform (elongate and relatively thin) antennae, limbs with bilobate exopods (upper branches), with the proximal (closest to base of the limb) lobe being elongate and bearing a lamella, while the distal (further from the limb base) lobe is paddle-shaped and setiforous (bearing hair-or bristle like structures). The limb endopod (inner, leg-like branch) has seven podomeres/segments, with first four podomeres bearing inward facing (endite) structures, while podomeres five and six are stenopodous (cylindrical and stout). Common plesiomorphies (ancestral traits) also include the antennules and at least three sets of post-antennular limbs being attached to the head shield, the postantennular limbs having no or little differentiation into distinct morphologies, and broad paratergal folds which contribute to the dorsoventrally (along the up-down axis) flattened look of artiopods. The limbs of artiopods have also been suggested to bear exites, which were described as similar those of the megacheiran Leanchoilia and probably not homologous to those present in crustaceans.