Carbotubulus is a genus of extinct worm belonging to the group Lobopodia and known from the Carboniferous Carbondale Formation of the Mazon Creek area in Illinois, US.
[1] The name is derived from Latin words, carbo, referring to the geological age Carboniferous; and tubulus, meaning "small pipe", a description for the pipe-like legs.
Unlike other lobopodians, its head is relatively large and cylindrical in shape, occupying about one-third of the body length.
Discovery of Cambrian lobopod Ovatiovermis cribratus from the Burgess Shale in 2017 led to a reanalysis of lobopodian classification, and Carbotubulus was assigned to a group Panarthropoda, specifically belonging to the family Hallucigeniidae along with the various species of Hallucigenia and Cardiodictyon catenulum.
[11] This classification is still controversial, especially after the discovery of the second post-Cambrian (Silurian) long-legged lobopodian, Thanahita distos, from the Herefordshire Lagerstätte at the England–Wales border in UK in 2018.