| Antennipatus Temporal range: Late Pennsylvanian, | |
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| Both halves of the Antennipatus fossil MNHN SOT006706 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Onychophora |
| Genus: | †Antennipatus Ou et al. |
| Species: | †A. montceauensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Antennipatus montceauensis Garwood, Edgecombe & Giribet, 2016 | |
Antennipatus was known of as far back as 1981. In 1982, a paper mentioned the animal, considering it a velvet worm due to its well-preserved antenna. The same paper considered Antennipatus basically identical to Helenodora from the Mazon Creek fossil beds. Later studies from 1988 and 2014 showed some of the fossils alongside new ones which were recently found.
In 2016, Antennipatus was officially described by Russel J. Garwood, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Sylvain Charbonnier, Dominique Chabard, Daniel Sotty, and Gonzalo Giribet (Two of the authors, Sotty and Charbonnier, had published on the animal before Antennipatus was described).
Currently, there are three known fossils of Antennipatus: the holotype (MNHN SOT003121) and two paratypes (MNHN SOT003122 and SOT006706). Each of the three fossils can be divided into two halves: the main half (labeled with an "a"), and counterpart (labeled with a "b"). Both the holotype and paratypes are stored in the Jacques de La Comble Natural History Museum of Autun. However, they actually belong to the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) of Paris.
Antennipatus was found in the Montceau-les-Mines lagerstätte of Central France. The fossils are 305 million years old and date to the Late Stephanian, a geologic stage equivalent to the Kasimovian-Gzhelian boundary of the late Pennsylvanian.
Antennipatus gets its genus name from its well-preserved antennae that resemble those of velvet worms. The species name "montceauensis" was given due to being found in Montceau-les-Mines.
Antennipatus had a pair of slender antenna. In the holotype fossil (MNHN SOT003121), these switched between wide and narrow bands and preserved more than 40 rings of skin bumps called dermal papillae. The same antennae pattern is found in living velvet worms, for example, Epiperipatus isthmicola. It is unsure if Antennipatus had eyes since none were clearly preserved.
Two fossils of Antennipatus had what was probably a bottom-facing mouth. This was preserved as a hole that is longer than it is wide. In the holotype it was 3.2 × 1.6 millimeters, and in MNHN SOT003122 it was 1.8 × 1.2 millimeters. Antennipatus's mouth was also surrounded by a circular ridge. These were likely its lip papillae (dermal papillae around a velvet worm's mouth). Since neither fossils preserve jaws, the mouth was probably closed or filled with dirt when being fossilized.
Behind the antennae and to the sides of the mouth were a pair of slime cannons. These are preserved best in the MNHN SOT003121 Antennipatus, but they might exist in MNHN SOT006706. We know these aren't legs since they were higher up on the sides of the body, much shorter, and didn't preserve any rings.
All fossils of Antennipatus are incomplete and only preserve the front. Because of this, we are unsure how many legs it had, where it's genital pad was, and on which segment it's anus ended. Luckily, some of the body was preserved. Antennipatus's body had at least 5 segments (though probably way more), and each segment had 8 bands of dermal papillae. Like in modern velvet worms, each segment of the body had a pair of legs. These preserved rings of dermal papillae and had 8 to 10 per leg. However, the legs didn't preserve any claws or spiny foot pads. The body didn't preserve tracheal openings either, though they might have been too small to fossilize.
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