Mongolarachne

Mongolarachne
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic, 164 Ma
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Pair of male (left) and female (right) fossil Mongolarachne jurassica.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: †Mongolarachnidae
Selden, Shih & Ren, 2013
Genus: †Mongolarachne
Selden, Shih & Ren, 2013
Type species
Nephila jurassica
Selden, Shih & Ren, 2011
Species
  • †M. jurassica Selden, Shih & Ren, 2013

Mongolarachne is an extinct genus of spiders placed in the monogeneric family Mongolarachnidae. The genus contains only one species, Mongolarachne jurassica, described in 2013, which is presently the largest fossilized spider on record.[1] The type species was originally described as Nephila jurassica and placed in the living genus Nephila which contains the golden silk orb-weavers.[2]

Subsequently it was determined to be stem-orbicularian, i.e. a relative of the group Orbiculariae, which contains the family Nephilidae, but also several other families, such as Theridiidae, Theridiosomatidae or Uloboridae.[1][3] The species is known only from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation, part of the Daohugou Beds, near the village of Daohugou in Ningcheng County, northeastern China.[2]

A second putative species, Mongolarachne chaoyangensis, was described in 2019,[4] but it was subsequently shown to be a forgery based on a fossil crayfish.[5]

Jorg Wunderlich placed Longissipalpus and Pedipalparaneus from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber into Mongolarachnidae in 2015.[6]

  1. ^ a b Selden, P. A.; Shih, C.K.; Ren, D. (2013). "A giant spider from the Jurassic of China reveals greater diversity of the orbicularian stem group". Naturwissenschaften. 100 (12): 1171–1181. Bibcode:2013NW....100.1171S. doi:10.1007/s00114-013-1121-7. PMC 3889289. PMID 24317464.
  2. ^ a b Selden, P. A.; Shih, C.K.; Ren, D. (2011). "A golden orb-weaver spider (Araneae: Nephilidae: Nephila) from the Middle Jurassic of China". Biology Letters. 7 (5): 775–8. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.0228. PMC 3169061. PMID 21508021.
  3. ^ Kuntner, M; Arnedo, M. A.; Trontelj, P.; Lokovše, T; Agnarsson, I. (2013). "A molecular phylogeny of nephilid spiders: Evolutionary history of a model lineage". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 69 (3): 961–979. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.008. PMID 23811436.
  4. ^ Xiaodong Cheng; Sizhao Liu; Wenjuan Huang; Li Liu; Hongming Li; Yinxian Li (2019). "A new species of Mongolarachnidae from the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning, China". Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition). 93 (1): 227–228. Bibcode:2019AcGlS..93..227C. doi:10.1111/1755-6724.13780. (Retracted, see doi:10.1111/1755-6724.14580)
  5. ^ Paul A. Selden; Alison N. Olcott; Matt R. Downen; Dong Ren; Chungkun Shih; Xiaodong Cheng (2019). "The supposed giant spider Mongolarachne chaoyangensis, from the Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China, is a crayfish" (PDF). Palaeoentomology. 2 (5): 515–522. doi:10.11646/palaeoentomology.2.5.15. S2CID 208124459.
  6. ^ J. Wunderlich. 2015. On the evolution and the classification of spiders, the Mesozoic spider faunas, and descriptions of new Cretaceous taxa mainly in amber from Myanmar (Burma) (Arachnida: Araneae). Mesozoic Spiders (Araneae): Ancient Spider Faunas and Spider Evolution, Beiträge zur Araneologie 9:21-408