Abstract The geological age of the onychophoran crown‐group, and when the group came onto land, have been sources of debate. Although stem‐group Onychophora have been identified from as early as the Cambrian, the sparse record of terrestrial taxa from before the Cretaceous is subject to contradictory interpretations. A Late Carboniferous species from the Mazon Creek biota of the USA, Helenodora inopinata, originally interpreted as a crown‐group onychophoran, has recently been allied to early Cambrian stem‐group taxa. Here we describe a fossil species from the Late Carboniferous Montceau‐les‐Mines Lagerstätte, France, informally referred to as an onychophoran for more than 30 years. The onychophoran affinities of Antennipatus montceauensis gen. nov., sp. nov. are indicated by the form of the trunk plicae and the shape and spacing of their papillae, details of antennal annuli, and the presence of putative slime papillae. The poor preservation of several key systematic characters for extant Onychophora, however, prohibits the precise placement of the Carboniferous fossil in the stem or crown of the two extant families, or the onychophoran stem‐group as a whole. Nevertheless, A. montceauensis is the most compelling candidate to date for a terrestrial Paleozoic onychophoran.

中文翻译：

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来自法国 Montceau-les-Mines 的石炭纪 Onychophora 和 onychophoran 陆地化

摘要 甲虫冠群的地质年龄，以及该群何时登陆，一直是争论的焦点。 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 尽管早在寒武纪就已经确定了茎群 Onychophora，但对白垩纪之前陆生分类群的稀疏记录存在矛盾的解释。来自美国马松溪生物群的晚石炭纪物种 Helenodora inopinata 最初被解释为一种冠群甲虫，最近与早寒武纪干群分类群结盟。在这里，我们描述了一种来自法国晚石炭世 Montceau-les-Mines Lagerstätte 的化石物种，该物种在 30 多年来被非正式地称为有甲虫。Antennipatus montceauensis gen 的甲虫亲和力。十一月，sp。十一月 由躯干皱襞的形状及其乳头的形状和间距表示，触角环的细节，以及假定的粘液乳头的存在。然而，现存 Onychophora 的几个关键系统特征的保存不佳，阻止了石炭纪化石在两个现存科的茎或冠部或整个 onychophoran 茎群中的精确定位。尽管如此，A. montceauensis 是迄今为止最引人注目的陆生古生代爪虫候选者。