Mongolarachne
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Mongolarachne Temporal range: Middle Jurassic, 164 Ma |
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| Pair of male (left) and female (right) fossil Mongolarachne. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: |
†Mongolarachnidae Selden, Shih & Ren, 2013 |
| Genus: |
†Mongolarachne Selden, Shih & Ren, 2013 |
| Species: | †M. jurassica |
| Binomial name | |
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Mongolarachne jurassica (Selden, Shih & Ren, 2011) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Nephila jurassica |
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Nephila jurassica
Selden, Shih & Ren, 2011
Mongolarachne jurassica is an extinct spider placed in the monotypic family Mongolarachnidae. The species was originally described as Nephila jurassica and placed in the living genus Nephila which contains the golden silk orb-weavers. Subsequently it was determined to be stem-orbicularian, i.e. a relative of the group Orbiculariae, which contains the family Nephilidae, but also several other families, such as Theridiidae, Theridiosomatidae or Uloboridae. The species is known only from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation, part of the Daohugou Beds, near the village of Daohugou in Ningcheng County, northeastern China.
Mongolarachne jurassica is known only from two fossils, the holotype, specimen number "CNU-ARA-NN2010008" which is a mostly complete adult female and the later described allotopotype male, number CNU-ARA-NN2011001-1 (part) and CNU-ARA-NN20110001-2 (counterpart). The individuals are preserved as compression fossils in a pale grey finely laminated sedimentary tuff. The fossil specimens are from outcrops of the Jiulongshan Formation exposed in the Wuhua Township. The type specimens is currently preserved in the Key Lab of Insect Evolution & Environmental Changes collections housed in the Capital Normal University, located in Beijing, China. Mongolarachne jurassica was first studied by Paul Selden of the University of Kansas and the Natural History Museum along with Dong Ren and ChungKun Shih both of the Capital Normal University. Their 2011 type description of the genus and species was published online in the journal Biology Letters. The etymology of the specific epithet jurassica refers to the age of the species. The genus name Mongolarachne is derived from (Inner) Mongolia, where the fossils were found, and the Latin arachne meaning "spider". The family name is a derivative of the genus name.
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