The metastoma is a ventral single plate located in the opisthosoma of non-arachnid dekatriatan chelicerates such as eurypterids,[1] chasmataspidids[2] and the genus Houia.[3] The metastoma located between the base of 6th prosomal appendage pair and may had functioned as part of the animal's feeding structures. It most likely represented a fused appendage pair originated from somite 7 (first opisthosomal segment), thus homologous to the chilaria of horseshoe crab and 4th walking leg pair of sea spider.[2] In eurypterids, the plate was typically cordate (heart-shaped) in shape, though differed in shape in some genera, such as Megalograptus.[4]
References
edit- ^ Tollerton, Victor P. (1989). "Morphology, taxonomy, and classification of the order Eurypterida Burmeister, 1843". Journal of Paleontology. 63 (5): 642–657. doi:10.1017/S0022336000041275. ISSN 0022-3360.
- ^ a b Dunlop, Jason A.; Lamsdell, James C. (2017). "Segmentation and tagmosis in Chelicerata". Arthropod Structure & Development. 46 (3): 395–418. doi:10.1016/j.asd.2016.05.002. ISSN 1467-8039. PMID 27240897.
- ^ Selden, Paul A.; Lamsdell, James C.; Qi, Liu (2015). "An unusual euchelicerate linking horseshoe crabs and eurypterids, from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) of Yunnan, China". Zoologica Scripta. 44 (6): 645–652. doi:10.1111/zsc.12124.
- ^ Caster, Kenneth E.; Kjellesvig-Waering, Erik N. (1964). "Upper Ordovician eurypterids of Ohio". Paleontological Research Institution.
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