Areomartus ovatus Petrunkevitch 1913, from the Pennsylvanian (Kanawah Formation; Bashkirian?) of Cotton Hill, Fayette County, West Virginia, USA is redescribed. Originally placed in the family Eophrynidae of the extinct arachnid order Trigonotarbida, it lacks unequivocal eophrynid features. Nevertheless, Areomartus Petrunkevitch 1913 was used as the type genus of a now superfluous eophrynid subfamily Areomartinae Petrunkevitch 1955. The present revision suggests that too much emphasis was placed on the primary diagnostic character of Areomartus, hexagonal fields across the carapace, in a rather poorly preserved and incomplete specimen. Areomartus ovatus is thus removed from Eophrynidae and treated as Trigonotarbida incertae sedis. Vratislavia silesica (Römer 1878) from the Pennsylvanian (Langsettian?) of Kłodzko (formally Glatz) in Silesia, Poland is another problematic eophrynid. The holotype is believed lost, and thus interpretations rely on published figures. Opisthosomal morphology suggests that V. silesica actually belongs in a different trigonotarbid family: Anthracosironidae.
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1 April 2010
The enigmatic Pennsylvanian arachnids Areomartus ovatus and Vratislavia silesica (Trigonotarbida)
Jason A. Dunlop
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Areomartinae
Coal Measures
fossil
Silesia
West Virginia