Spanish and American researchers have discovereda new species of migalomorphic spider, a relative of today’s tarantulas, which lived in northern Italy about 215 million years ago, when the first dinosaurs inhabited this area. They have baptized it asFriularachne rigoi, and it is one of the few spiders known from the Triassic in the entire world.
Mygalomorphic spiders are famous and feared for the size and poisonous bite that some of them have. But the specimen kind ofFriularachne rigoi, one of the oldest known ancestors of tarantulas, was an adult male less than half a centimeter in length. Its fossil remains were found in the Carnic Pre-Alps, in the Italian province of Udine in northeastern Italy.
Only three other fossil spiders are known from this period, the Triassic, which goes from 250 to 200 million years ago. The other three were found in France, the United States and South Africa. In fact, the evolutionary history of mygalomorphic spiders is quite unknown since the finding of fossil remains of arachnids is very rare.
The study, in which the Catalan Institute of Paleontology Miquel Crusafont (ICP) has participated, has made it possible to find out thatFriularachneit had slender legs and chelicerae – the appendages used to catch prey – facing outward and large and robust. The pedipalps, which are other characteristic spider appendages, had wide ends, indicating that the specimen was an adult male. The abdomen was covered and protected by a wide shield.
