Abstract
The lightly sclerotised cuticle of chilopods, coupled with their predominantly litter and soil-dwelling habits, set constraints on their fossilisation potential. In spite of this, of the five extant chilopod orders, two (Scutigeromorpha and Scolopendromorpha) have a fossil record extending back to the Palaeozoic, and an extinct order in the Middle Devonian (Devonobiomorpha) dates the divergence of Lithobiomorpha and Phylactometria to at least that age, ca 385 million years ago. The earliest known fossil centipedes, ca 418 million years old, can be confidently assigned to the Scutigeromorpha. A specimen referred to Lithobius from the Rubielos de Mora site in Spain is of Early Miocene age. Palaeozoic scolopendromorphs are known exclusively from the Upper Carboniferous of Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA. The Mesozoic record of scolopendromorphs is based on two species from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation in northeastern Brazil, Velocipede betimar , named and described by Martill and Barker, and Cratoraricrus oberlii Wilson. Keywords:chilopods; Devonobiomorpha; fossil centipedes; Scolopendromorpha; Scutigeromorpha
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