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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Ablation of a Single Cell From Eight-cell Embryos of the Amphipod Crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis
Published on: March 16, 2014
The origin of crustacean biramous appendages and the evolution of arthropoda
Abstract:
The evolution of biramous appendages in crustaceans is central to the debate on the origin of the arthropods. It is proposed that the biramous limb evolved through the basal fusion of adjacent pairs of ancestrally uniramous appendages. As a result, the existing system of homology, in which uniramous and biramous appendages are considered equivalent, may be invalid. Similarly, the homology of individual body segments between uniramians, such as insects and myriapods, and arthropod groups with biramous limbs is also called into question. Two uniramian segments, or a diplosegment, may be homologous to a single body segment in biramous groups.
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