MYRIAPODOUS ARTHROPODS FROM THE VISEAN OF EAST KIRKTON, WEST-LOTHIAN,SCOTLAND

Several specimens of myriapodous arthropods have been discovered at th e early Carboniferous East Kirkton site near Bathgate, West Lothian, S cotland. None is particularly well preserved, but they are the earlies t known Carboniferous myriapods, filling the time gap between the Old Red Sandstone of the early Devonian and the abundant myriapod faunas o f the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian). One of the specimens, a mill iped, provides the earliest evidence for both ozopores (repugnatorial gland openings) and spiracles. A second milliped specimen has some cha racteristics of the living Order Glomeridesmida, and hence of Enghoff' s (1990) 'ground plan' of chilognathan millipeds. Aspects of these for ms and a third suggest a novel early Carboniferous fauna clearly diffe rent from both earlier and later ones. The taxon name 'Myriapoda' shou ld be abandoned, since it covers a group now recognised as paraphyleti c. 'Archipolypoda' is probably synonymous with Order Euphoberiida, Cla ss Diplopoda.