Peripatidae
| Peripatidae Temporal range:  | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota | 
| Kingdom: | Animalia | 
| Phylum: | Onychophora | 
| Family: | Peripatidae Audouin & Milne-Edwards, 1832 | 
| Genera | |
| See text | |
| Global range of Onychophora   extant Peripatidae   fossils | |
Peripatidae is a family of velvet worms. This family includes more than 90 described species distributed among 13 genera, but some authorities deem only 80 of these species to be valid. The oldest putative representatives of the family herald from Burmese amber dated to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago, with representatives from Dominican and Baltic amber attesting to a broader distribution in the Palaeogene / Neogene; molecular variability suggests that the family's crown group may have arisen in the early Mesozoic.