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The phylogenetic position of the extinct arachnid order Phalangiotarbida Haase, 1890, with reference to the fauna from the Writhlington Geological Nature Reserve (Somerset, UK)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2007

Jessica R. Pollitt ,
Simon J. Braddy  and
Jason A. Dunlop
Jessica R. Pollitt
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK.
Simon J. Braddy
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK. e-mail: s.j.braddy@bristol.ac.uk
Jason A. Dunlop
Affiliation:
Institut für Systematische Zoologie, Museum f¨r Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, D-10115, Berlin, Germany. e-mail: jason.dunlop@museum.hu-berlin.de
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Abstract

Study of abundant phalangiotarbid (Arachnida: Phalangiotarbida) material – provisionally assigned here to Bornatarbus mayasii (Haupt in Nindel 1955) – from the Upper Carboniferous of Writhlington, UK, has revealed new information about some previously equivocal characters. The present authors report a trifurcate apotele, possible spiracles on sternite 5, and confirm the presence of 10 opisthosomal tergites plus a dorsal anal operculum. The affinities of phalangiotarbids are obscure, with most authors favouring affinities with Opiliones (harvestmen) and/or Acari (mites and ticks). Phalangiotarbida is scored for characters used in previous studies of arachnid relationships. A cladistic analysis based on 63 characters using 13 terminal arachnid taxa (plus a hypothetical outgroup), resolves Phalangiotarbida as sister group to (Palpigradi + Tetrapulmonata): the taxon Megoperculata sensu Shultz (1990). Even under cladistic analysis, the position of the Phalangiotarbida remains hard to resolve, but a prosomal sternite with distinct sclerites potentially groups them with the Megoperculata.

Keywords

ArthropodCheliceratacladisticsmorphologyUpper Carboniferous
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 94 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 243 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 2003

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