Tactopoda

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Tactopoda
Temporal range: Fortunian–Present
The tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini
The blue crab Callinectes sapidus, an arthropod
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa
Clade: ParaHoxozoa
Clade: Bilateria
Clade: Nephrozoa
(unranked): Protostomia
Superphylum: Ecdysozoa
(unranked): Panarthropoda
(unranked): Tactopoda
Budd, 2001 [1]

Tactopoda or Arthropodoidea is a proposed

Euarthropoda, supported by various morphological observations.[1][2][3] The cladogram
below shows the relationships implied by this hypothesis.

Panarthropoda

Onychophora

Tactopoda

Tardigrada

Euarthropoda

The competing hypothesis is that

Euarthropoda + Onychophora, the arthropods and the velvet worms) is monophyletic,[6]
and tardigrades lie outside this grouping.

Panarthropoda

Tardigrada

Antennopoda

Onychophora

Euarthropoda

Anatomic arguments for the tactopoda monophyly include similarities in the anatomies of head, legs, and muscles between the arthropods and the tardigrades. Anatomic arguments against it include that tardigrades lack the kind of circulatory system (including a

phylogenomic evidence in favour of the alternative Euarthropoda+Onychophora grouping.[6]

Etymology

Budd formed the suggested clade name 'tactopoda' from Greek taktos, ordered, and poda, feet, "with reference to the alleged well-formed stepping motion that characterises the group".[1]

Proposed classification

Phylogeny

Panarthropoda

Velvet worms (Onychophora)

Tactopoda
Tardigrada
Arthropoda

Trilobita

?

Pycnogonida

Chelicerata

Xiphosura

Eurypterida

Chasmataspidida

Arachnida

?

Pycnogonida

Mandibulata

References