Anyphaenidae

Anyphaenidae is a family of araneomorph spiders, sometimes called anyphaenid sac spiders or ghost spiders. They are distinguished from the sac spiders of the family Clubionidae and other spiders by having the abdominal spiracle placed one third to one half of the way anterior to the spinnerets toward the epigastric furrow on the underside of the abdomen. In most spiders the spiracle is just anterior to the spinnerets.

Anyphaenidae

Junkyardsparkle · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DionychaPBDB
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Arachnida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arachnida
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Arachnida

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 13.82 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 7 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 7 occurrencesMiocene38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33.9 Mya20.45 Mya38.2 Mya13.3 Mya

7 occurrences of Anyphaenidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

7 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Mazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°W

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The named rock units Anyphaenidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anyphaenidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Anyphaenidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

920 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Anyphaenidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 7 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Anyphaenidae

Credit
Junkyardsparkle
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Spider
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDionycha through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bertkau 1878