Paraprosthenorchis
genus of parasitic worms
Paraprosthenorchis is a monotypic genus of acanthocephalans (thorny-headed or spiny-headed parasitic worms). It contains a single species, Paraprosthenorchis ornatus, which infests the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in Vietnam.
Taxonomy
Paraprosthenorchis was described by Amin, Ha and Heckmann in 2008. This genus is named for its nearest oligacanthorhynchid genus, Prosthenorchis. The National Center for Biotechnology Information does not indicate that any phylogenetic analysis has been published on Paraprosthenorchis that would confirm its position as a unique order in the family Oligacanthorhynchidae.
Description
P. ornatus have a trunk over 200 mm long, ornate proboscis with three non-barbed hooks in each of 16 rows. They have simple hook roots without manubria, and a large oblong horizontally posterior hook base. There are about 35 festoons. Protonephridia are gill-like and capsular. Gonopore is terminal.
“Paraprosthenorchis” enters the record as genus of parasitic worms. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Paraprosthenorchis, genus and parasitic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Paraprosthenorchis” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Paraprosthenorchis, genus and parasitic provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q121887937. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paraprosthenorchis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.