Mesozygiella dunlopi

Mesozygiella is an extinct genus of orb-weaving spider, with one known species, Mesozygiella dunlopi, dating from the Early Cretaceous, making it the earliest orb-weaver yet discovered. Two male specimens of the species were found embedded in amber in Álava, northern Spain. The fossils provide direct evidence that the three major orb weaving families, namely Araneidae, Tetragnathidae and Uloboridae, had evolved by this time, about 140 million years ago. They probably originated during the Jurassic. All three families very likely have a common origin.

No picture of Mesozygiella dunlopi was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Mesozygiella dunlopi, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

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

Time the record covers

At most 5.8 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 106.3 Mya and 100.5 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 1 occurrence106–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences103–103 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences103–103 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences103–103 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106.8 Mya100 Mya

1 occurrence of Mesozygiella dunlopi on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

1 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

Escucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°W

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The named rock units Mesozygiella dunlopi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Mesozygiella dunlopi and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Mesozygiella dunlopi and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

7 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Mesozygiella dunlopi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content0

No picture of Mesozygiella dunlopi was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Mesozygiella dunlopi, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Mesozygiella dunlopi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itMesozygiella through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Penney and Ortuño 2006