Trigonotarbida

Trigonotarbida Temporal range: 419–290 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Late Silurian to Early Permian
Palaeotarbus jerami
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	†Trigonotarbida Petrunkevitch, 1949
Families
Palaeocharinidae Anthracomartidae Anthracosironidae Trigonotarbidae Lissomartidae Aphantomartidae Kreischeriidae Eophrynidae
Synonyms
Anthracomarti Karsch, 1882 Meridogastra Thorell & Lindström, 1885 Eurymarti Matthew, 1895

The order Trigonotarbida is an extinct group of arachnids whose fossil record extends from the late Silurian to the early Permian (c. 419 to 290 million years ago). These animals are known from several localities in Europe and North America, as well as a single record from Argentina. Trigonotarbids can be envisaged as spider-like arachnids, but without silk-producing spinnerets. They ranged in size from a few millimetres to a few centimetres in body length and had segmented abdomens, with the tergites across the backs of the animals' abdomens, which were characteristically divided into three or five separate plates. Probably living as predators on other arthropods, some later trigonotarbid species were quite heavily armoured and protected themselves with spines and tubercles. About seventy species are currently known, with most fossils originating from the Carboniferous Coal Measures. In July 2014 scientists used computer graphics to re-create a possible walking gait for the animal.

The first trigonotarbid was described in 1837 from the Coal Measures of Coalbrookdale in England by the famous English geologist Dean William Buckland. He believed it to be a fossil beetle and named it Curculoides prestvicii. A much better preserved example was later discovered from Coseley near Dudley; also in the English West Midlands conurbation. Described in 1871 by Henry Woodward, he correctly identified it as an arachnid and renamed it Eophrynus prestvicii – whereby the genus name comes from (eos, meaning 'dawn'), and Phrynus, a genus of living whip spider (Amblypygi). Woodward subsequently described another trigonotarbid, Brachypyge carbonis, from the Coal Measures of Mons in Belgium; although this fossil is only known from the abdomen and was initially mistaken for the back end of a crab.