Dinopedia
Advertisement
Cretoperipatus
Temporal range: Middle Cretaceous
4875 45 90
A restored sketch sheet of Cretoperipatus burmiticus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Onychophora
Class: Udeonychophora
Order: Euonychophora
Family: Peripatidae
Genus: Cretoperipatus
Engel & Grimaldi, 2002
Species: C. burmiticus
Binomial name
Cretoperipatus burmiticus
Engel & Grimaldi, 2002

Cretoperipatus burmiticus is an extinct species of velvet worm that is known from Cretaceous amber approximately 100 million years old. It was found in Kachin state, Myanmar.

The species can be assigned to one of the modern families, the Peripatidae. While only five leg pairs can be discerned, the information gained from the fossil is enough to preclude assignment to any known modern genus.

Cretoperipatus burmiticus is important in closing a gap between the only other known fossil onychophores, Helenodora inopinata from the Carboniferous and Succinipatopsis balticus plus Tertiapatus dominicanus from the Eocene and Miocene, respectively.

It was hypothesised that onychophorans could have migrated from Gondwana to Southeast Asia via the northwards drift of India. Research published in 2016 concluded that the age of Burmese amber supports an earlier migration through Europe. The same study also came to the conclusion that Typhloperipatus williamsoni is the closest extant relative of Cretoperipatus.

Advertisement