Siphoniulida

Shelley, Rowland M. & Golovatch, Sergei I., 2011, Atlas of Myriapod Biogeography. I. Indigenous Ordinal and Supra-Ordinal Distributions in the Diplopoda: Perspectives on Taxon Origins and Ages, and a Hypothesis on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Class, Insecta Mundi 2011 (158), pp. 1-134 : 50

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.5164069

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/350B6716-0D0C-FFF2-FF71-FB37FC2BF9B8

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Siphoniulida
status

 

Order Siphoniulida View in CoL incertae sedis ( Fig. 23 View Figure 23-25 )

The rarest order, the monofamilial Siphoniulida are known from only two areas some 19,200 km (12,000 mi) apart on opposite sides of the world. It was first discovered on Sumatra at essentially the same site as Siphonocryptida , and there is a small area in southern Mexico / Guatemala ( Fig. 23 View Figure 23-25 ) ( Pocock 1894; Hoffman 1979b, 1980a, 1999; Sierwald et al. 2003; Bueno-Villegas et al. 2004). All locations are tropical, that in Sumatra lying essentially on the Equator and the New World site being to the north; aside from the discoveries of the order and the holotype of Siphoniulus albus Pocock, 1894 , Siphoniulida have not been encountered again in the Old World. While additional populations may await discovery, the present limited and vastly disjunct occurrences indicate great age, relictual status, and decline toward extinction ( Golovatch and Kime 2010). The most informative works are Hoffman (1979b) and Sierwald et al. (2003); the latter readdressed affinities but could not resolve them. The combination of a juliformian body and colobognathan head suggests that Siphoniulida may be a remnant of an early intermediate lineage. Could Siphoniulida be the sole surviving remnant (a “living fossil”) of a transition stage between Colobognatha and Eugnatha? We have no answer but suggest that dissection and SEM examinations of siphoniulid mandibles, as well as molecular studies, might be meaningful.

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