Kingdom Animalia Class Arachnida Suborder Araneomorphae Scientific name Cenotextricella simoni | Phylum Arthropoda Order Araneae Family Micropholcommatidae Rank Genus | |
Cenotextricella is a genus of fossil spiders with one described species, Cenotextricella simoni, found in Eocene amber (c. 53 million years ago) from the Paris Basin in France. The male is only about one millimeter long. A female has not yet been discovered. It is the first fossil record of the family Micropholcommatidae. Recent species in the family only occur in the Southern Hemisphere, in Australia and South America.
The spider probably lived in semi-deciduous or deciduous woodland near a river, in a warm climate with wet and dry seasons.
Like all species of the family it has eight eyes.
Name
The genus name is a combination of ceno (from Cenozoic, where the type species originates), and the closely allied extant genus Textricella. The species is named in honor of famous French arachnologist Eugène Simon (1848–1924).