Article: A spider and other arachnids from the Devonian of New York, and reinterpretations of Devonian Araneae

The oldest known spider, from the Devonian (Givetian) of Gilboa, New York, is Attercopus fimbriunguis (Shear, Selden and Rolfe), parts of which were originally described as a trigonotarbid, possibly of the genus Gelasinotarbus. Previous reports of Devonian spider fossils, from the Lower Emsian of Alken-an-der-Mosel, Germany, and the Pragian of Rhynie, Scotland, are shown to be erroneous identifications. Attercopus is placed as sister-taxon to all living spiders, on the basis of characters of the spinneret and the arrangement of the patella-tibia joint of the walking legs. A cladogram of the relationships of all pulmonate arachnids is presented. A pulmonate arachnid from Gilboa, related to Araneae and Amblypygi, is described as Ecchosis pulchribothrium Selden and Shear, gen. et sp. nov., and additional arachnid material is described.