Palaeothele

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]

Palaeothele Temporal range: Stephanian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mesothelae
Genus:	†Palaeothele
Species:	†P. montceauensis
Binomial name
†Palaeothele montceauensis (Selden, 1996)[1]

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 Opisthothelae (non-mesothele spiders) Mesothelae Liphistius (modern mesothele spiders) Heptathela (modern mesothele spiders) †Palaeothele