Pneumodesmus

Pneumodesmus newmani is a species of myriapod. It is originally considered that it lived during the late Wenlock epoch of the Silurian period around . However, a 2017 study dates its occurrence based on zircon data analysis as the Early Devonian (Lochkovian). Although the 2023 study confirmed the age identification of the 2004 study through palynological, palaeobotanical and zircon analyses incorporating newly discovered additional data, this is based on adjacent structurally separated block with different stratigraphy and sedimentology to the block with fossil site it was discovered, and it is confirmed as unsustainable. It is one of the first myriapods, and among the oldest creatures to have lived on land. It was discovered in 2004, and is known from a single specimen from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

==Discovery and naming== The fossil of P. newmani was found by Mike Newman, a bus driver and amateur palaeontologist from Aberdeen, in a layer of sandstone rocks on the foreshore of Cowie, near Stonehaven (Cowie Formation). The species was later given the specific epithet "newmani" in honour of Newman. The holotype is kept in National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. The genus name is said to be derived from the Greek pneumato, meaning "air" or "breath", in reference to the inferred air-breathing habit. The proper word in ancient Greek for "air" or "breath" is however pneuma (πνεῦμα).