Ricinulei Temporal range:
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Cryptocellus goodnighti | |
Scientific 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 | |
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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.