Saturday, July 29, 2006

New fossil spiders

In the latest issue of the journal Palaeontology some beautifully preserved fossil spiders are described:

Cretadiplura ceara - Carapace length = 4.95mm

Dinodiplura ambulacra - Carapace length = 12.80mm

They come from the lower Creataceous Crato member of the Santana Formation In Brazil that contains many other amazingly well preserved fossils.

This reminded me that I had found the website of Paul Selden where he has kindly made available many of his publications on fossil spiders available: http://homepage.mac.com/paulselden/Home/index.html


Ref:
MYGALOMORPH SPIDERS (ARANEAE: DIPLURIDAE) FROM THE LOWER CRETACEOUS CRATO LAGERSTÄTTE, ARARIPE BASIN, NORTH-EAST BRAZIL
by PAUL A. SELDEN, FABIO DA COSTA CASADO and MARISA VIANNA MESQUITA

Palaeontology Volume 49 Page 817 - July 2006
doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00561.x

Abstract: The first mygalomorph spiders from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Lagerstätte of Cearà Province, north-east Brazil, are described, from adult males and females, in two new genera and species: Cretadiplura ceara Selden, gen. et sp. nov. and Dinodiplura ambulacra Selden, gen. et sp. nov. They belong to the extant family Dipluridae, hitherto known as fossils only from Tertiary strata; thus this occurrence extends the family record by some 90 myr.

See also: Santana Formation Fossils and my post: oldest orb weaving spider discovered

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How big/small are they?

Lukas said...

I have edited the post to give some idea of size. The length of the Carapace of Cretadiplura ceara is 4.95 mm and that of Dinodiplura ambulacra carapace is 12.80mm.

Anonymous said...

Nice blog. I came here from Pharyngula and found lots to keep me interested. I have now added Muton to the list of blogs I visit each day.

Anonymous said...

This is the way I like my spiders!!

Anonymous said...
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