NOMEN: Gnathopoda Lankester 1877 [E.R. Lankester. Notes on the Embryology and classification of the Animal kingdom: comprising a revision of speculations relative to the origin and significance of the germ-layers. – Quartely Journal of Microscopical Science (N.S.), 1877, No.68: 399-454]
ORIGINAL LISTED
MEMBERSHIP (Lankester
1877):
Peripatidea + Eucrustacea (=
"Crustacea") + Hexapoda + Myriapoda + Chelicerata
(= "Arachnida") 
JUNIOR CIRCUMSCRIPTIONAL SYNONYMS:
= Lobopoda
Boudreaux 1979
= Panarthropoda Nielsen
1995
= Podophora Waggoner 1996
= Antennopoda
De Haro 1998
NON-MONOSEMANTIC
CIRCUMSCRIPTIONAL SYNONYMS (with indeterminate position of
Onychophora):
= Endomyaria Spinola
1850 s.l.
TYPIFIED NAME IN BASIC FORMAT: Araneus/fg (incl. Peripatus)
TYPIFIED NAMES IN USE: -
MODERN
STATUS: 
the oldest, valid name of a holophyletic taxon.
Classifications of recent Gnathopoda:
| modern phylogenetic classification:00000000 |
000000000000000other0classifications:000000000000000 |
|
| Gnathopoda Onychophora Tardigrada Acanthotheca Euarthropoda Chelicerophora Pantopoda Chelicerata Xiphosura Arachnida Mandibulata Eucrustacea Myriapoda Hexapoda |
Gnathopoda Branchiata Eucrustacea Xiphosura Tracheata Arachnida Onychophora Myriapoda Hexapoda |
Gnathopoda Acerata Eucrustacea Xiphosura Arachnida Ceratophora (= Uniramia) Onychophora Myriapoda Hexapoda |
COMMENT. Etymologically, the word "gnathopoda" ("jaw-legged") fails to characterize the taxon: while in Onychophora and many Euarthropoda anteriormost pairs of limbs are specialized as jaws, in Tardigrada jaws are not limb derivatives; probably these or that limbs were specialized as jaws independently in various groups of Gnathopoda, and the common ancestor of Gnathopoda had no jaws homologous to limbs. In nomenclature, however, etymology is not a factor. The name Gnathopoda Lankester 1877 is not a homonym of Gnathopodaria Pictet 1854 (originally "Gnathopodaires", in French); thus, the name Gnathopoda should be valid.