Paul Selden from the University of Kansas and Jason Dunlop from the Museum of Natural History in Berlin discovered an arachnid called Douglassarachne acanthopoda. Scientists recently shared the results of their research in an article in the Journal of Paleontology.
The found creature comes from the Mason Creek area in the state of Illinois, USA, and its age is about 308 million years. This arachnid was 1.5 cm long, with extremely strong and spiny legs. These external characteristics, according to paleontologists, make it unlike any known arachnid, living or extinct.
Douglassarachne acanthopoda, holotype and only known specimen
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Paul Selden and Jason Dunlop noted that this creature is significantly different from any known arachnid. This is a special example of an extinct group. Despite the fact that the creature's spiny legs resemble some modern spiders, the body structure is very different from them.
The identification procedure was complicated by the lack of information about some parts of the body, in particular the oral cavity and the hip area. And researchers cannot accurately determine the exact place of this arachnid in the evolutionary chain. However, they believe that Douglassarachne acanthopoda belongs to a broad group of spiders and related species.
Douglassarachne acanthopoda, magnification under a microscope
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According to Selden and Dunlop, the forests of the Late Carboniferous period were a refuge for a great variety of arachnids. In addition to the usual species, there were other, more strange ones.
Douglassarachne acanthopoda, reconstruction of possible appearance
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Source: elespectador.com
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