Onychophora
Sign in to saveOnychophora (from , , "claws"; and , , "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (for their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, Peripatus), is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged animals. In appearance they have variously been compared to worms with legs, caterpillars, and slugs. They prey upon other invertebrates, which they catch by ejecting an adhesive slime. Approximately 200 species of velvet worms have been described, although the true number is likely to be much greater.
AI overview
Velvet worms are soft-bodied, many-legged animals that hunt other invertebrates by shooting sticky slime at them, and they represent a distinct phylum with around 200 known species that scientists believe is far larger than currently documented. These creatures matter because they fill an important ecological niche as predators and represent a unique branch of animal life that helps us understand the diversity of how animals evolved and adapted to their environments.
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Article
33 sectionsContents
- Anatomy and physiology
- Antennae
- Mouth and jaws
- Slime papillae
- Slime
- Lobopods
- Nervous system
- Skin and muscle
- Circulation
- Respiration
- Digestion and excretion
- Reproductive organs
- Distribution and habitat
- Distribution
- Habitat
- Behaviour
- Locomotion
- Sociality
- Feeding
- Growth, development, and reproduction
- Ecology
- Phylogeny
- Internal phylogeny
- External phylogeny
- Genomics
- Evolution
- Insights on decay and fossilization
- Emergence from lobopodians
- Velvet worms and their diversification
- Conservation status
- Footnotes
- References
- External links
Onychophora (from , , "claws"; and , , "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (for their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, Peripatus), is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged animals. In appearance they have variously been compared to worms with legs, caterpillars, and slugs. They prey upon other invertebrates, which they catch by ejecting an adhesive slime. Approximately 200 species of velvet worms have been described, although the true number is likely to be much greater.
The two extant families of velvet worms are Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae. They show a peculiar distribution, with the peripatids being predominantly equatorial and tropical, while the peripatopsids are all found south of the equator. It is the only phylum within Animalia that is wholly endemic to terrestrial environments, at least among extant members. Velvet worms are generally considered close relatives of the Arthropoda and Tardigrada, with which they form the proposed taxon Panarthropoda. This makes them of palaeontological interest, as they can help reconstruct the ancestral arthropod. Only two fossil species are confidently assigned as onychophorans: Antennipatus from the Late Carboniferous, and Cretoperipatus from the Late Cretaceous, the latter belonging to Peripatidae. In modern zoology, they are known for their mating behaviours and for some species bearing live young.