Palaeothea devonica
| Palaeothea devonica | ||||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Devonian , Emsium | ||||||||||||
| 407 to 397.5 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Palaeothea devonica | ||||||||||||
| Bergström , Stürmer & Winter , 1980 |
Palaeothea devonica is an extinct woodpecker spider that was found in one specimen in the Bundenbach Hunsrück slate. It was very small, barely the size of a cent.
Bergström , Stürmer and Winter discovered the fossil as part of their X-ray examinations in 1980. It is remarkable because it is so similar to modern pantopods that it could even be classified in this (modern) order. Thus it is proven that woodlice spiders with the typical recent habit existed in the Devonian 400 million years ago.
literature
- Christoph Bartels, Günther Brassel: Fossils in the Hunsrück schist: Documents of marine life in Devon , 1st edition, Museum Idar-Oberstein, Vol. 7, 1990, pp. 96-100, ISSN 0721-5495
- Jan Bergström, Wilhelm Stürmer, Gerhard Winter: Palaeoisopus, Palaeopantopus and Palaeothea, pycnogonid arthropods from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, West Germany. , Paleontological Journal 54: 7-54, 1980. online