Biology:Tegopelte

Tegopelte; Temporal range: Middle Cambrian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
	File:20240121 Tegopelte gigas diagrammatic reconstruction.png
	Diagrammatic reconstruction, showing top-down view (top) and view from below (bottom)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	†Trilobitomorpha
Subclass:	†Conciliterga
Genus:	†Tegopelte; Simonetta and Delle Cave, 1975
Species:	†T. gigas
Binomial name
	†Tegopelte gigas; Simonetta and Delle Cave, 1975

Short description: Extinct genus of arthropods

Tegopelte gigas (from the Greek tegos, “tile,” and pelte, “leather-shield,” referring to the shape of the dorsal body covering; gigas – from the Greek gigas, “giant,” due to the huge size of the animal^[1]) is a species of large soft-bodied arthropod known from two specimens found in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada.^[2]^[3]

Description

Tegopelte was a large arthropod, reaching a body length of 28 centimetres (11 in) and width of 14 centimetres (5.5 in). The body was covered in a large undivided dorsal shield that was unmineralised. On the head a pair of tear-shaped eyes were present on the underside of the shield, alongwith a pair of antennae. The body had 33 pairs of biramous limbs, with the lower endopod functioning as the walking limbs, though the ones at the far back of the body are likely too small to have been useful for walking.^[2] The endopods had at least four segments/podomeres. The exopods of the limbs pairs bore elongated filament-like structures, and probably functioned as gills.^[3] Within the body were gut diverticulae used to digest food.^[2]

Ecology

Tegopelte is suggested to have been a seafloor dwelling (benthic) animal that was either a predator or a scavenger. Trackways probably produced by Tegopelte are known from the Kicking Horse Shale, stratigraphically below its body fossil occurrences. These suggest that it had the ability to skim along the seafloor at a brisk pace and could perform tight turns, though the tracks suggest that they also at times more slowly walked across the seafloor.^[2]

Taxonomy

Although historically classified as a true trilobite,^[3] is no longer thought to be part of this group. It is currently considered a member of the clade Conciliterga within Trilobitomorpha, a group which contains trilobites and their close relatives.^[4]

After Jiao et al. 2021.

Artiopoda

Squamacula clypeata

Protosutura