''Nemastomoides'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

harvestmen The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an Order (biology), order of arachnids, Common name, colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs (see below). , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered w ...

known from the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

. The genus is the only member of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Nemastomoididae and contains three described species. ''Nemastomoides elaveris'' was found in the Coal Measures of

Commentry Commentry (; Auvergnat: ''Comentriac'') is a commune in the department of Allier in central France. It lies southwest of Moulins in the valley of the Œil. It is within 8 km of one of the geographic centres of France. The film actress ...

in northern France, together with '' Eotrogulus fayoli''.

Alexander Petrunkevitch Alexander Ivanovitch Petrunkevitch (; December 22, 1875 – March 9, 1964) was a Russian arachnologist. From 1910 to 1939, he described over 130 spider species. One of his most famous essays was "The Spider and the Wasp." In it he uses effective ...

described two fossil harvestmen from

Mazon Creek The Mazon Creek fossil beds are a conservation ' found near Morris, in Grundy County, Illinois. The fossils are preserved in ironstone concretions, formed approximately in the mid- Pennsylvanian epoch of the Carboniferous period. These concr ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, United States, in 1913 in the genus ''Protopilio'', but later synonymized the two with the genus ''Nemastomoides''. While ''N. longipes'' is a harvestman with long legs and a segmented oval body, ''N. depressus'' is in reality not a harvestman, but a poorly preserved phalangiotarbid.Dunlop, Jason A. (2007): Paleontology. In: Pinto-da-Rocha ''et al.'' 2007: 255 While the Nemastomoididae are currently included in the harvestman suborder

Dyspnoi Dyspnoi is a suborder of harvestmen, currently comprising 43 extant genera and 356 extant species, although more species are expected to be described in the future. The eight families are currently grouped into three superfamilies: the Acropsopil ...

, they look more like

Eupnoi The Eupnoi are a suborder of harvestmen, with more than 200 genera, and about 1,700 described species. They consist of two superfamilies, the Phalangioidea with many long-legged species common to northern temperate regions, and the small group ...

Species

* '' Nemastomoides elaveris'' Thevenin, 1901 * ''

Nemastomoides longipes ''Nemastomoides'' is an extinct genus of harvestmen known from the Carboniferous fossil record. The genus is the only member of the family (biology), family Nemastomoididae and contains three described species. ''Nemastomoides elaveris'' was fo ...

'' (Petrunkevitch, 1913) Not a harvestman, but a phalangiotarbid: * '' Nemastomoides depressus'' (Petrunkevitch, 1913)

Footnotes

References

* Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog
Nemastomoididae
* Thevenin, A. (1901): Sur la découverte d'arachnides dans le terrain houiller de Commentry. ''Bull Soc Géol. Fr.'' 4(1): 605-611. * Petrunkevitch, A. I. (1955): Arachnida. pp. 42–162 in '' Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology'', part P. ''Arthropoda 2'' (R. C. Moore, ed.). Geological Society of America & University of Kansas Press, Lawrence. * Pinto-da-Rocha, R., Machado, G. & Giribet, G. (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. ''Harvard University Press'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q3021518 Carboniferous arthropods Harvestmen Carboniferous arachnids Fossils of the United States