Araneomorphae

The Araneomorphae are an infraorder of spiders. They are distinguishable by chelicerae (fangs) that point diagonally forward and cross in a pinching action, in contrast to those of Mygalomorphae, which point straight down. Araneomorphs comprise the vast majority of living spiders.

Araneomorphae

B.Navez · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
OpisthothelaePBDB
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Arachnida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arachnida
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Arachnida

Time the record covers

At least 227 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 2565 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 2 of 2565 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 2565 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 5 of 2565 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 12 of 2565 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 58 of 2565 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 486 of 2565 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 2565 occurrencesEocene — about 1518 of 2565 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 22 of 2565 occurrencesMiocene — about 376 of 2565 occurrencesPliocene — about 9 of 2565 occurrencesPleistocene — about 7 of 2565 occurrences242–234 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences234–226 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences226–218 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences218–210 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences210–201 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences201–193 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences185–177 Mya — about 1 occurrence169–161 Mya — about 6 occurrences161–153 Mya — about 10 occurrences153–145 Mya — about 1 occurrence145–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences129–121 Mya — about 22 occurrences121–113 Mya — about 5 occurrences113–105 Mya — about 16 occurrences105–97 Mya — about 277 occurrences97–89 Mya — about 206 occurrences89–81 Mya — about 11 occurrences81–73 Mya — about 6 occurrences73–64 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56–48 Mya — about 17 occurrences48–40 Mya — about 8 occurrences40–32 Mya — about 1494 occurrences32–24 Mya — about 16 occurrences24–16 Mya — about 275 occurrences16–8.1 Mya — about 105 occurrences8.1–0 Mya — about 86 occurrences227.3 Mya11.7 ka242 Mya0 Mya

2,565 occurrences of Araneomorphae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

2,565 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

41 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EDaohugou — 41.32°N, 119.24°ERaritan — 40.47°N, 74.32°WYixian — 41.19°N, 119.21°EYixian — 41.62°N, 120.83°EKheta — 71.63°N, 100.97°EKheta — 70.93°N, 98.64°EKheta — 72.00°N, 103.00°EKheta — 72.03°N, 101.33°EKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°EUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EEscucha — 40.80°N, 0.81°WEscucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WGreen River — 39.23°N, 108.22°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 39.72°N, 108.14°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EJinju — 35.08°N, 128.05°EBarstow — 34.95°N, 116.83°WBarstow — 34.94°N, 116.83°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WRandeck Maar — 48.57°N, 9.53°EMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°Wla Pedrera de Rubies — 42.01°N, 0.96°EForemost — 49.83°N, 111.70°WNaibuchi — 47.44°N, 142.76°EKabaw — 21.68°N, 94.08°EDolgan — 70.17°N, 86.82°EMolteno — 29.50°S, 29.50°EMolteno — 31.05°S, 26.80°EBembridge Marls — 50.74°N, 1.36°WLas Penosas — 43.31°N, 4.45°W

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The named rock units Araneomorphae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 2,343 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Araneomorphae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Araneomorphae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

7,846 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 230 sites for Araneomorphae, and this reads 230 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

249 references

Each of the 2,565 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. 237 further references are not listed. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Araneomorphae

Credit
B.Navez
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itOpisthothelae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Smith 1902