Peripatus is a genus of Onychophora (Velvet worms). It is said to be a living fossil because it has been unchanged for approximately 570 million years. Peripatus are native to scattered places around the world including New Zealand, Costa Rica[1] and other countries, but not in Europe or Antarctica.
Peripatus
Peripatus is a nocturnalcarnivore. It feeds by trapping its prey (mostly small insects) in a white, sticky fluid it ejects from two antennae near its head. The fluid hardens on contact with the air and then the prey becomes immoblized. Peripatus then chews a hole in its prey's exoskeleton with its mandibles (which move independently of each other), injects digestive enzymes in, and begins sucking out its prey's pre-digested innards.
