Peripatopsis

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Peripatopsis
       n : type genus of Peripatopsidae; onychophorans of chiefly
           Asiatic and African tropical regions [syn: {genus
           Peripatopsis}]