Megacheira

Megacheira Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3–Middle Cambrian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Possible Silurian and Devonian records
Leanchoilia (top), Yohoia (left), Haikoucaris (right) and Fortiforceps (bottom).
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	†Megacheira Hou and Bergström, 1997
Groups
†Tanglangia †Jianfengiidae Sklerolibyon Jianfengia Parapeytoia Fortiforceps †Kootenichelidae? Kootenichela? Worthenella? †Cheiromorpha Yohoiida Yohoiidae Yohoia Haikoucaris Leanchoiliida Actaeidae Actaeus Enaliktidae? Enalikter? Bundenbachiellus ? Leanchoiliidae Alalcomenaeus Leanchoilia Oestokerkus Yawunik Kanoshoia

Megacheira ("great hands") is an extinct class of predatory arthropods. They had a pair of short enlarged appendages at the front.^[1] They look like early chelicerates.^[2][3]

Most of them lived in marine environments round the world from the lower to middle Cambrian. It looks like they were quite common then. However, one perfectly preserved specimen of Enalikter was found in the Silurian of Herefordshire (England).^[4] Another species (Bundenbachiellus) was found in the early Devonian of Germany.^[5]

1. ↑ Stein, Martin 2010. A new arthropod from the early Cambrian of North Greenland, with a 'great appendage'-like antennula. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158 (3): 477–500. [1]
2. ↑ Stolte, Daniel (2013). "Extinct 'Mega Claw' creature had spider-like brain". University of Arizona.
3. ↑ Tanaka, Gengo et al 2013. Chelicerate neural ground pattern in a Cambrian great appendage arthropod. Nature 502 (7471): 364–367. [2]
4. ↑ Dayantis, Harry 2014. The 425-million-year-old 'bottle brush' beastie. Oxford University Science blog. [3] Archived 2014-04-04 at the Wayback Machine
5. ↑ Siveter D.J.; et al. (2014). "A Silurian short-great-appendage arthropod". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 281 (1778). doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.2986. PMC 3906945. PMID 24452026.