Lomankus
| Lomankus Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Lomankus CT-scans | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | †Megacheira |
| Order: | †Leanchoilida |
| Family: | †Leanchoiliidae |
| Genus: | †Lomankus Parry, Luke A. et al., 2024 |
| Type species | |
| †Lomankus edgecombei Parry, Luke A. et al., 2024
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Lomankus (meaning "edge of a valley") is the youngest known leanchoiliid megacheiran, from the Late Ordovician (Katian) Beecher's Trilobite Bed Lagerstätte. It is the first post-Cambrian megacheiran (excluding Enaliktidae). It is monotypic with only one species, Lomankus egecombei. Its name comes from Greek and is derived from the roots "loma" (meaning edge, border) and "ankos" (meaning valley), in reference to the etymology of the surname of Gregory D. Edgecombe. The specific name directly references Edgecombe.[1]
Morphology
[edit]This megacheiran ranges in length from around 8 to 20 mm in length without the telson. It possesses short great appendages, which bear elongate, slender, flagelliform endites measuring more than half of the body length; these structures were suggested to be used for sensory purposes. There is no evidence of eyes; the space where they would be is unoccupied. The trunk is made up of 10 segments. The first 3 trunk tergites are usually equally wide; beyond this point their width decreases gradually towards the posterior. Its trunk endopods consist of 5 podomeres and a terminal curved claw, each of the podomeres has setae/spines projecting from its distal margin. The flap-like, suboval exopods overlap, and their margin is covered with perhaps as many as 30 setae. The protopodites bear structures interpreted as exites. Lomankus also possesses an elongate, gradually tapering, flagelliform telson which is longer than the rest of its body.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Parry, Luke A.; Briggs, Derek E. G.; Ran, Ruixin; O’Flynn, Robert J.; Mai, Huijuan; Clark, Elizabeth G.; Liu, Yu (2024-12-02). "A pyritized Ordovician leanchoiliid arthropod". Current Biology. 34 (23): 5578–5586.e2. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.013. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 39476836.