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proper noun Peripatus, Peripatopsis n. (Zool.) The type genus of Peripatopsidae, consisting of onychophorans (lowly organized invertebrates related evolutionarily to the arthropods, also called "walking worms" AND "velvet worms") found chiefly in Asiatic and African tropical regions, in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and tropical America. Synonyms: genus Peripatopsis. " The average resident of the Northern Hemisphere is probably not familiar with the Onychophora; they are restricted to forest regions of South America, Africa, the Caribbean, and Oceania. Shy creatures, able to hide in incredibly tight crevices, these "velvet worms" (about ninety living species known) are rarely seen even in their natural habitat. Yet onychophorans are of great interest to biologists, because they seem to be related to arthropods, and give us an idea of what the ancestors of the arthropods may have been like. Although they are rare as fossils, a number that have been found from the Cambrian period. These fossils show that abundant marine relatives of the Onychophora flourished in the seas 520 million years ago." Note: In the 1913 Webster Peripatus was identified with the now disused order Malacopoda (within the phylum arthropoda); however, Malacopoda is now assigned to a group contained within the phylum Onycophora. The name Peripatus has also been used (possibly erroneously) to designate a specific species, as indicated in the following quotation found on the internet. " The onychophora, peripatus, is a unique creature, found in New Zealand. There is no other like peripatus. It is probably a creature from the dawn of time, as it seems to have a fossil representative of the most early invertebrates: Aysheaia, as may be found in some deposits of Burgess Shale. Aside from a lovely name, Peripatus doesn't look much like an earth creature. It is also frequently colored blue. It has a mixture of attributes similar to both annelida and arthopoda. I have also found interesting the arguments taxonomists have had for years over the creature; it's taxonomy has been fussed and fought over, and changed several times. Mostly, there just isn't anything like it. Its pre-historic relative (which looks just like it), lived at a time when mother nature was just begining to make complex, multi-cellular creatures, and most of them (with the exception of the jellyfish) looked like pure experiments in physical design. No decendants remain of them, except Peripatus. They were all bizzare in the extreme, like something from a sci-fi nightmare. And they are all gone. Except Peripatus. Peripatus still remains. It is totally bizzare, and totally unique."
Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48
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