Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Liphistiidae

Suborder Mesothelae Pocock, 1892

Phylogenetic definition

(for details, see Xu et al. submitted). In the analysis of divergence times, we treated Mesothelae as a stem group leading from the root of all spiders to the node-based clade Liphistiidae . Therefore, Mesothelae accommodates the fossil genus Palaeothele Selden, 2000, which does not share one of the synapomorphies of Liphistiidae (single row of teeth on cheliceral fang groove). Although the morphological diagnosis resembles that of Liphistiidae, Mesothelae is inclusive of Liphistiidae but the two groups are phylogenetically not identical.

Composition.

Mesothelae includes the crown group Liphistiidae with extant species from East and Southeast Asia, and the fossil Palaeothele montceauensis (Selden 1996a, b) from the Upper Carboniferous of Montceau-les-Mines, France around 295 Ma.