Onychodictyon


Onychodictyon is an extinct armored worm known from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales in the Yunnan Province in China. Onychodictyons segmented body and stubby non-segmented legs place it in the phylum Lobopodia, which includes several other segmented and free swimming animals such as Microdictyon, Cardiodictyon, Luolishania, and Paucipodia.
The maximum length of Onychodictyon is and it possesses a sclerotized head and ten paired sclerotic plates. Each leg appears to have curved claws that are thought to have aided Onychodictyon climb onto other organisms. Onychodictyon sclerites appear to have molted with some specimens exhibiting perfectly conjoined plates from successive molts.
Onychodictyon is represented by two species: O. ferox which has a pair of "antennae" on its "head" and a body with eleven pairs of legs; and O. gracilis which has a blunt front end without appendages and a body with twelve pairs of limbs.