Scientists have discovered a strange creature with spiny legs that lived 308 million years ago

"This little arachnid has a body length of about 1.5 centimeters and is characterized by its particularly strong spiny legs - so it is completely different from any other known arachnid, living or extinct."

Douglassarachne acanthopoda, a 308-million-year-old arachnid with spiny legs, was discovered in Food Creek, Illinois. This unique species highlights the diversity of ancient arachnids during the Carboniferous, although its exact classification remains uncertain.

More than 300 million years ago, all kinds of arachnids roamed the Carboniferous coal forests of North America and Europe. These included familiar species such as spiders, harvestmen and scorpions - as well as exotic animals that are now common in warmer regions such as whip spiders and whip scorpions.

But there were also very strange arachnids in those habitats belonging to extinct groups. Even among the odder long-vanished species, one may have stood out for its armored legs.

The ancient creature was recently described in a new paper published in the Journal of Paleontology, co-authored by Paul Selden of the University of Kansas and the Natural History Museum in London, with Jason Dunlop of the Museum of Natural History in Berlin.

"Douglassarachne acanthopoda comes from Food Creek in Illinois and lived about 308 million years ago," said Selden, lead author of the paper. "This little arachnid has a body length of about 1.5 centimeters and is characterized by its particularly strong spiny legs - so it is completely different from any other known arachnid, living or extinct."

Evolutionary significance and mystery

The University of Kansas researcher said the Carboniferous coal deposits are an important source of information on fossil arachnids, representing the first time in Earth's history that most living groups of arachnids appeared together. However, the fauna was still very different from today.

"Spiders were a fairly rare group, known at the time only from primitive groups, and they shared these ecosystems with various long-extinct arachnids," said co-author Dunlop. "Douglassarachne acanthopoda is a particularly impressive example of one of these extinct forms. Its spiny legs are very reminiscent of some modern harvestmen, but its body structure is very different from harvestmen or any other known group of arachnids."

This led the two scientists to conclude that it did not belong to any of the known groups of arachnids.

"Unfortunately, details such as the mouthparts are not visible, making it difficult to determine which group of arachnids it is closest to," Selden said. "It may belong to a wider group, which includes spiders, whip spiders and whip scorpions. Whatever their evolutionary connections, these spiny arachnids seem to have come from a time when arachnids developed a variety of different body structures. Some became extinct later, perhaps during the 'Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse', shortly after the Creek Food Age when the coal forests began to decay and die. Or maybe these strange arachnids survived until the Great Perm extinction?”

According to the team, the Food Creek fossil site is one of the most important windows into life in the Late Carboniferous, producing a wide variety of fascinating plants and animals. The present fossil was discovered in a clay-iron concretion in the 80s by Bob Meisk and was later acquired by the David and Sandra Douglas Collection and displayed in their Museum of Prehistoric Life.

"The genus name Douglassarachne honors the Douglas family, who generously donated the specimen to the Natural History Museum in Chicago for scientific research after it became clear that it represented a previously undescribed species," Dunlop said. "So acanthopoda refers to the creature's distinctive spiny legs."

לThe scientific article

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