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Onychodictyon Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3 PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
O. ferox fossil, Geological Museum of China
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
(unranked):	Panarthropoda
Phylum:	†"Lobopodia"
Class:	†Xenusia
Order:	†Paronychophora
Family:	†Onychodictyidae
Genus:	†Onychodictyon Hou, Ramsköld, & Bergström, 1991
Type species
Onychodictyon ferox Hou, Ramsköld, & Bergström, 1991
Species
O. ferox O. gracilis

Onychodictyon is a genus of extinct lobopodian known from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales in the Yunnan Province in China. It was characterized by a stout body covered by fleshy papillae and pairs of sclerotized plates with spines, representing part of the diverse "armoured lobopodians" alongside similar forms such as Microdictyon and Hallucigenia.

The maximum length of Onychodictyon is 70 mm (2.8 in). It has a resemblance to Microdictyon (net-like sclerite ornament) but also Aysheaia and tardigrades (basally-fused terminal leg pairs). Each leg has a pair of curved claws that are thought to have aided Onychodictyon in climbing 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 simple eyes and feathery antenniform appendages on its head; and O. gracilis which has a blunt front end without evidence of any appendages.

References

1. ^ Liu, Jianni; Shu, Degan; Han, Jian; Zhang, Zhifei; Zhang, Xingliang (2008). "The lobopod "Onychodictyon" from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte revisited" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 53 (2): 285–292. doi:10.4202/app.2008.0209.
2. Ramsköld, L.; Xianguang, Hou (1991). "New early Cambrian animal and onychophoran affinities of enigmatic metazoans". Nature. 351 (6323): 225–228. doi:10.1038/351225a0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4309565.
3. ^ Ou, Qiang; Shu, Degan; Mayer, Georg (2012). "Cambrian lobopodians and extant onychophorans provide new insights into early cephalization in Panarthropoda". Nature Communications. 3 (1): 1261. doi:10.1038/ncomms2272. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 3535342. PMID 23232391.
4. Steiner, M.; Hu, S.X.; Liu, J.; Keupp, H. (2012-02-02). "A new species of Hallucigenia from the Cambrian Stage 4 Wulongqing Formation of Yunnan (South China) and the structure of sclerites in lobopodians". Bulletin of Geosciences: 107–124. doi:10.3140/bull.geosci.1280. ISSN 1802-8225.
5. Smith, Martin R.; Ortega-Hernández, Javier (2014). "Hallucigenia's onychophoran-like claws and the case for Tactopoda". Nature. 514 (7522): 363–366. doi:10.1038/nature13576. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 25132546. S2CID 205239797.
6. ""Onychodictyon ferox" Lobopodian Fossil from Chengjiang". The Virtual Fossil Museum. The Virtual Fossil Museum. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
7. Topper, Timothy; Skovsted, Christian; Peel, John; Harper, David (2013). "Molting in the lobopodian "Onychodictyon" from the lower Cambrian of Greenland". Lethaia. 46 (4): 490–495. doi:10.1111/let.12026.

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