Ricinulei

Ricinulei
Temporal range: Late Carboniferous–Recent
Cryptocellus goodnighti
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Ricinulei
Thorell, 1876
Family: Ricinoididae
Ewing, 1929
Exant genera

For fossil genera, see text

Distribution map of extant species.

Ricinulei is a small order of arachnids. Like most arachnids, they are predatory; eating small arthropods. They occur today in west-central Africa (Ricinoides) and the Americas (Cryptocellus and Pseudocellus) from Brazil to southern Texas, where they inhabit either leaf-litter or caves. As of 2022, 103 extant species of ricinuleids have been described worldwide, all in the single family Ricinoididae.[1] Due to their obscurity they do not have a proper common-name, though in academic literature they are occasionally referred to as hooded tickspiders.

In addition to the three living genera, Ricinulei has a fossil-record spanning over 300 million years, including fossils from the Late Carboniferous of Euramerica and the Cretaceous Burmese amber.

The Ricinulei order is considered by paleontologists and zoologists to be a Lazarus taxon - that is, a taxon (plural taxa) which disappears for one or more periods from the fossil record, only to appear again either in subsequent fossil records, or as actual living organisms - often in isolated, obscure, or otherwise very specialized habitats.

  1. ^ Valdez-Mondragón, Alejandro; Juárez-Sánchez, Alma R. (2021-02-23). "A new epigean species of ricinuleid of the genus Pseudocellus (Arachnida: Ricinulei: Ricinoididae) from a tropical sub-deciduous forest in Oaxaca, Mexico". The Journal of Arachnology. 48 (3). doi:10.1636/JoA-S-20-014. ISSN 0161-8202. S2CID 232021020.

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