Threatened arthropods and described. The total number of living arthropod species is probably in the tens of millions. One conservative estimate puts the number of arthropod species in tropical forests alone at six to nine million species. As a consequence of all of the above, most published estimates of the total number of endangered insects and arachnids are probably low by at least an order of magnitude. Conservatively at least eighty percent of all living animal species are arthropods. Since arthropods constitute the majority of the faunal biomass on Earth, their role is vital to the survival of large numbers of insectivores
Small shelly fauna mostly of unknown origin. However it is known that some, including "Microdictyon", were produced by lobopods, animals that looked like worms with legs and are thought to be close to the ancestors of arthropods. Univalved and bivalved shells are fairly common. Some cap-shaped shells are thought to be the only sclerite covering their creators, while others are known to be parts of a more complex armor system like "Halkieria"’s. The Helcionellids are thought to be early molluscs with somewhat snail-like shells. Some have horizontal "exhaust pipes" on the concave edges of their shells, and there is debate about whether these