Peripatidae or the Equatorial Velvet Worms are one of the two living families of velvet worms. The oldest representative of the family (Cretoperipatus) heralds from Burmese amber dated to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago. This group includes more than 90 described species distributed among 13 genera, but some authorities deem only 80 of these species to be valid. Many genera of peripatids are paraphyletic or even polyphyletic and as such should be broken up.