Palaeothele

<i>Palaeothele</i>

Palaeothele

Extinct genus of spiders

Palaeothele is an extinct genus of mesothele spiders, with only one known species Palaeothele montceauensis.[1] Two fossils were found at Montceau-les-Mines, France, in ironstone concretion deposits of Late Carboniferous (Stephanian) age, about 304 to 299 million years ago.[2]

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Binomial name ...

Taxonomy

The genus was first named as Eothele by Paul A. Selden in 1996. However, this name had already been used for a Cambrian brachiopod, so in 2000, Selden proposed the replacement name Palaeothele. Palaeothele is derived from the Greek παλαιός, "ancient", and θηλή, "nipple" – a common ending for spider names, referring to their spinnerets.[3] The species name montceauensis refers to the location where the fossils were found.[2]

Phylogeny

In 1996, Selden suggested the relationships shown in the cladogram below. (At the time, Attercopus was thought to be a spider; it is now considered to belong to a related but separate group, the Uraraneida.) Palaeothele is shown as sister to the modern genus Heptathela since they both have "tracheal sacs", structures adjacent to the posterior book lungs.[2]

†Attercopus (uraraneid)

Araneae
Mesothelae

†Palaeothele

Heptathela (modern mesothele spiders)

Liphistius (modern mesothele spiders)

Opisthothelae (other spiders)

References

  1. [1]
    Dunlop, J.A.; Penney, D.; Jekel, D. (2016), "A summary list of fossil spiders and their relatives, version 16.5" (PDF), World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2016-03-31
  2. [2]
    Selden, P.A. (1996), "First fossil mesothele spider from the Carboniferous of France" (PDF), Revue suisse de Zoologie, hors série: 585–596, retrieved 2016-03-18
  3. [3]
    Selden, P.A. (2000), "Palaeothele, replacement name for the fossil mesothele spider Eothele non Rowell" (PDF), Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society, 11 (292), retrieved 2016-03-31


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