| slovo | definícia |
peripatus
(encz) | peripatus, n: |
Peripatus
(gcide) | Peripatopsis \Pe`ri*pa*top"sis\, Peripatus \Pe*rip"a*tus\prop.
n. [NL., fr. Gr. peri`patos a walking about.] (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.
Syn: genus Peripatopsis.
[1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5]
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.
--From:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/onychoph/onychophora.html
[PJC]
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.
[PJC]
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. --Jonathon
R. Oglesbee
[PJC] |
peripatus
(wn) | peripatus
n 1: any of numerous velvety-skinned wormlike carnivorous
animals common in tropical forests having characteristics
of both arthropods and annelid worms [syn: onychophoran,
velvet worm, peripatus] |
| |