What is "lobopodia"

The lobopodians, members of the informal group Lobopodia Snodgrass 1938 (from the Greek, meaning "blunt feet") are worm-like taxa with stubby legs.

The scope of the Lobopodian concept varies from author to author. Its most limited sense refers to a suite of mainly Cambrian panarthropod taxa with flexible non-segmented limbs – for example Aysheaia, Hallucigenia and Xenusion. A broader definition of lobopodia would also incorporate the extant phyla Onychophora and Tardigrada. The broadest definition proposes the (monophyletic) Superphylum Lobopodia to encompass all three panarthropod phyla.

The oldest near-complete fossil lobopodians date to the Lower Cambrian; some are also known from Ordovician, Silurian and Carboniferous Lagerstätten. Some bear toughened claws, plates or spines, which are commonly preserved as carbonaceous or mineralized microfossils in Cambrian strata.