| Arthrolycosa Temporal range: Late Carboniferous to Late Permian | |
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| Arthrolycosa antiqua, illustrated by C. E. Beecher | |
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| Reconstruction of Arthrolycosa wolterbeeki | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae (?) |
| Family: | † Arthrolycosidae |
| Genus: | † Arthrolycosa Harger, 1874 |
| Species | |
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Arthrolycosa (meaning wolf [spider] with joints) is an extinct genus of arachnids, possibly spiders, that lived about 300-250 million years ago.
Fossils have been found Mazon Creek USA, Piesberg in Germany and in the Kirov Oblast region, and the Kamensk-Shakhtinsky of Russia. [1] [2] [3] [4]
A. antiqua is estimated to have a body length of about 2.17 cm [2] and may have preyed upon insects and other smaller animals that lived alongside them. A. wolterbeeki is the oldest spider known from Germany. [3]