Dr Jason Dunlop
jason.dunlop@rz.hu-berlin.de
Curator of Chelicerata
Institut für
Systematische Zoologie,
Museum für Naturkunde, Invalidenstraße 43, D-10115,
Berlin, Germany
Tel: ++ 49 30 2093 8516
Fax: ++ 49 30 2093 8528
Click here for the latest updates on arachnid evolution !
1. A home at last for Plesiosiro
2. A new model of chelicerate phylogeny !
3. Just what are the chasmataspids ?
arachnophiles recorded
belonging to the extinct order Trigonotarbida
Arachnid Origins and Evolution
According to the Ancient Greeks a young woman named Arachne challenged the godess Athenae to a weaving contest. Athenae won and, distraught, Arachne tried to hang herself, only to be turned into a spider by the angry goddess, condemned to weave forever as a warning to presumptuous mortals.
Like the Greek myth, my research here in Berlin is also trying to discover where spiders and the other arachnids came from. What were their ancestors like ? When did they first appear ? And how do the different groups such as spiders, scorpions and mites, relate to each other ?
Click here to continue