Arácnidos fósiles (con exclusión de aranas y escorpiones)

[ Fossil arachnids (excluding spiders and scorpions) ]

Jason A. Dunlop
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, Gran Bretana


The origins of the arachnids during the Lower Palaeozoic remain uncertain, but fossil arachnids are known from the Silurian. In addition to spiders and scorpions, a number of arachnid orders are known from the Devonian (i.e. mites, pseudoscorpiones, and the extinct trigonotarbids). Most living arachnid orders have been recorded by the Upper Carboniferous, plus three fossil orders (Trigonotarbida, Phalangiotarbida, Haptopoda), all of which became extinct by the Permian. The Mesozoic arachnid fossil record is poor, but improving. The known Mesozoic arachnids are already modern-looking and can often be placed in living families. The Cenozoic fossil record is dominated by amber specimens where, after spiders, opilionids, mites and pseudoscorpions are the most common finds. Most of these amber fossils can be referred to living genera. A large number of subfossil mites have also been recorded from Tertiary sediments. Comparing the arachnid fossil record to models of arachnid phylogeny allows us to predict the minimum divergence time for the arachnid clades recognised.

Boletin de la SEA, PaleoEntomología, 16, 77-92.

Author's comments:

Quite a general review. The text is printed both in Spanish and English.
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So far people were interested in fossil arachnids