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Article: A spider and other arachnids from the Devonian of New York, and reinterpretations of Devonian Araneae

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 34
Part: 2
Publication Date: June 1991
Page(s): 241 281
Author(s): Paul A. Selden, William A. Shear and Patricia M. Bonamo
DOI:
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Abstract

The oldest known spider, from the Devonian (Givetian) of Gilboa, New York, is Attercopus fimbriunguis (Shear, Selden and Rolfe), parts of which were originally described as a trigonotarbid, possibly of the genus Gelasinotarbus. Previous reports of Devonian spider fossils, from the Lower Emsian of Alken-an-der-Mosel, Germany, and the Pragian of Rhynie, Scotland, are shown to be erroneous identifications. Attercopus is placed as sister-taxon to all living spiders, on the basis of characters of the spinneret and the arrangement of the patella-tibia joint of the walking legs. A cladogram of the relationships of all pulmonate arachnids is presented. A pulmonate arachnid from Gilboa, related to Araneae and Amblypygi, is described as Ecchosis pulchribothrium Selden and Shear, gen. et sp. nov., and additional arachnid material is described.
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