Xyloiuloidea
{{Short description|Extinct superfamily of millipedes}}
{{Taxobox
| fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Lower Devonian|Pennsylvanian|ref={{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Heather M.|title=Juliformian millipedes from the lower Devonian of Euramerica: implications for the timing of millipede cladogenesis in the Paleozoic|journal=Journal of Paleontology|date=2006|volume=80|issue=4|pages=638–649|doi=10.1666/0022-3360(2006)80[638:JMFTLD]2.0.CO;2|s2cid=85823417 }}}}
| image = Xyloiulus_mazonus.jpg
| image_caption = Xyloiulus mazonus
| regnum = Animalia
| phylum = Arthropoda
| subphylum = Myriapoda
| classis = Diplopoda
| superordo = Juliformia
| ordo = incertae sedis
| superfamilia = †Xyloiuloidea
| superfamilia_authority = Cook, 1895
| subdivision_ranks = Families
| subdivision =
}}
Xyloiuloidea is an extinct superfamily of millipedes that existed from the Lower Devonian through the Upper Pennsylvanian period in Europe and North America.
Description
Xyloiuloids are more or less cylindrical, with sternites, pleurites, and tergites of each body segment fused into a complete ring. Adults possess 40 to 50 body rings. The legs are no longer than half the height of the body. The body surface is marked by small parallel grooves (striations), which vary in surface coverage between xyloiuloid families.{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Heather M.|title=Juliformian millipedes from the lower Devonian of Euramerica: implications for the timing of millipede cladogenesis in the Paleozoic|journal=Journal of Paleontology|date=2006|volume=80|issue=4|pages=638–649|doi=10.1666/0022-3360(2006)80[638:JMFTLD]2.0.CO;2|s2cid=85823417 }}
Taxonomy
Xyloiuloidea comprises four families:
The taxonomic history of Xyloiuloidea begins with Orator F. Cook designating the family Xyloiulidae in 1895. In 1969, Richard L. Hoffman established the families Nyraniidae and Plagiascetidae, and placed all three extinct families in the extant (still-living) order Spirobolida, as suborder "Xyloiulidea".Hoffman, Richard L., 1969. Myriapoda, exclusive of Insecta. R572–R606. In: Moore, R.C. (Ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part R, Vol. 2. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, KS. In 2006, two new species were described and placed in the new family Gaspestriidae, and group was reassigned as a superfamily of uncertain status (incertae sedis) within the juliform millipedes, a group that includes the cylindrical, fused-bodied orders Spirobolida, Spirostreptida, and Julida.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Millipedes|extinct}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q18926258}}
Category:Arthropod superfamilies
Category:Carboniferous myriapods
Category:Carboniferous arthropods of Europe
Category:Carboniferous arthropods of North America
Category:Devonian arthropods of Europe
Category:Devonian arthropods of North America
Category:Early Devonian first appearances
Category:Pennsylvanian extinctions
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