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The Trigonotarbid Arachnid Anthracomartus Voelkelianus (Anthracomartidae)

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The Trigonotarbid Arachnid Anthracomartus Voelkelianus (Anthracomartidae) 2002. The Journal of Arachnology 30:211±218 THE TRIGONOTARBID ARACHNID ANTHRACOMARTUS VOELKELIANUS (ANTHRACOMARTIDAE) Jason A. Dunlop: Institut fuÈr Systematische Zoologie, Museum fuÈr Naturkunde der Humboldt-UniversitaÈt zu Berlin, Invalidenstraûe 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: [email protected] Ronny RoÈûler: Museum fuÈr Naturkunde, Theaterplatz 1, D-09111 Chemnitz, Germany ABSTRACT. Anthracomartus voelkelianus Karsch 1882 from the Pennsylvanian (Langsettian) of Nowa Ruda, Poland was listed in a 1953 monograph by Petrunkevitch as an incertae sedis species with type material possibly in Dresden. Antharcomartus voelkelianus is the type species of the genus Anthracomartus Karsch 1882 and historically one of the ®rst described examples of the extinct order Trigonotarbida. It is a pivotal species for resolving the systematics of both Anthracomartus and a number of poorly de®ned, probably congeneric, taxa within Anthracomartidae. Karsch's ®gured types were overlooked by Petrunk- evitch, but have been traced to a repository in Berlin and are redescribed here. Additional type material from Dresden and Wrocøaw could not be traced. One of Karsch's ®gured Berlin specimens is regarded here as the holotype of A. voelkelianus, but his other ®gured fossil is evidently not conspeci®c and is tentatively referred here to Trigonotarbus sp. (Trigonotarbidae). Keywords: Trigonotarbida, Anthracomartidae, fossil, Pennsylvanian, Poland, systematics Trigonotarbida is a group of diverse Pa- species, A. granulatus Fritsch 1904, based on laeozoic arachnids recorded from late Silurian some of Karsch's material? Petrunkevitch to early Permian strata, but occurring most (1953) overlooked repository data in the lit- frequently in the Coal Measures of Europe erature, missed the opportunity to study at and North America. Anthracomartus voelke- least some of the relevant fossils, and consid- lianus Karsch 1882 was described from Penn- ered both these species to be incertae sedis. sylvanian age rocks of Silesia (SW Poland) In this paper we aim to identify Karsch's orig- and is signi®cant as the type species of An- inal material and to redescribe the available thracomartus Karsch 1882, itself the type ge- type material of A. voelkelianus. nus of Anthracomartidae Haase 1890. The PREVIOUS WORK systematics of this family are poorly re- Original descriptions.ÐKarsch (1882) de- solvedÐsee e.g. Dunlop & Horrocks scribed new fossil arachnids from the Silesian (1996)Ðmostly due to Fritsch (1901, 1904) Coal Measures, above the 7th seam of the and Petrunkevitch (1945, 1949, 1953) erecting `Rubengrube, bei Neurode, Schlesien' (5 both genera and species based on what appear Ruben mine, near Nowa Ruda, Silesia). This to be super®cial and/or preservational differ- locality is in southern Poland, SE of Wrocøaw ences. Anthracomartus voelkelianus is poten- near the border with the Czech Republic. tially the senior synonym of some of the more Stratigraphically, the fossils come from the dubious anthracomartid species and restudy of `Schatzlarer Schichten' (5 the ZÏ aclerÏ forma- the type material is a necessary starting point tion). Karsch established Anthracomartus for a revision of the Anthracomartidae. There voelkelianus as a new genus and species re- are, however, discrepancies between Karsch's ferred to a new, extinct arachnid order, An- (1882) two ®gured specimens and between thracomarti. Karsch named the fossils after Karsch's and Haase's (1890) ®gures of what Mr. VoÈlkel, the pit foreman and collector of is ostensibly the same fossil. This raises the the specimens. He noted that the `small num- following questions: were Karsch's original ber' of specimens were in the possession of a specimens conspeci®c, and was Fritsch's new Mr. Schumann in Dresden, and that they were 211 212 THE JOURNAL OF ARACHNOLOGY made available to Karsch by Prof. Dames and also Silesian, and was described as being from Mr. Weiss. A repository for these fossils was `outside Bohemia'. Anthracomartus granula- not given. tus was differentiated from A. voelkelianus on Anthracomartus voelkelianus was brie¯y the grounds that it was shorter and wider with mentioned by Scudder (1884) and was sub- very clear granulation. Both species were list- sequently redescribed and reinterpreted by ed in the monographs of Pocock (1911) and Haase (1890) who, in contrast to Karsch, iden- Petrunkevitch (1913). ti®ed dorsal and ventral surfaces. Haase In a review of the Pennsylvanian arachnids (1890, p. 645) stated (correctly) that the two from Silesia, Schwarzbach (1935) mentioned specimens ®gured by Karsch were in the col- a Westphalian age for the Rubengrube type lection of the Geological Survey (formerly the locality. Schwarzbach noted that Karsch's KoÈniglich-Preuûische Geologische Landesan- type series of A. voelkelianus was not in stalt) of Berlin and were lent to him (i.e., Haa- Wrocøaw (formerly Breslau), except for the se) by Dames, who was director of the Ge- counterpart of the one ®gured by Karsch ology-Palaeontology Institute of the Museum (1882, ®g. 2). Schwarzbach cited a repository fuÈr Naturkunde (MfN) and who also worked number, No. 556, for this specimen in the freely for the Survey (W. Lindert, pers. Geological Institute of Wrocøaw, which im- comm.). Furthermore, Haase (p. 646) stated plies that Karsch's original material was di- that the `Gegendruck' (5 counterpart) of vided between Berlin, Dresden and Wrocøaw. Karsch's ®g. 1 was in the Mineralogical Mu- Schwarzbach also noted that it was uncertain seum of Dresden, which implies that the type whether the specimens in Karsch's two ®gures series was divided between at least two insti- belonged together. Presumably he was ques- tutions (see also below). Haase (1890, pl. 30, tioning whether they were conspeci®c, since ®g. 9) claimed to have ®gured the Berlin spec- the literature already implied that each of imen (the part) of Karsch's ®g. 1, but whereas Karsch's ®gured specimens consisted of a part Karsch's illustration shows a fossil with a and counterpart and that the specimen in quadrate carapace and a leg, Haase's shows Karsch's ®g. 1 ended up in Berlin and Dres- one with a more rounded carapace and no leg. den (Haase 1890) while Karsch's ®g. 2 ended In his monograph of Paleozoic arachnids, up in Berlin and Wrocøaw. Schwarzbach also Fritsch (1904) included an inverted copy of noted another Wrocøaw specimen (no. 555) as Karsch's (1882, ®g. 1) illustration of A. voelk- having been collected by VoÈlkel, further sup- elianusÐin Fritsch's version the leg is on the porting the idea that the original Rubengrube left sideÐand noted that the cuticle of this material ended up in more than one institu- species is ®nely granulated. Note that the tion. Although originally labelled as A. voelk- Czech author Anton FricÏ is sometimes cited elianus, based on its wide body Schwarzbach under this Czech spelling of his name but, like referred no. 555 to A. granulatus. many non-Germans in the Austro-Hungarian Petrunkevitch's monographs.ÐPetrunk- empire, published the papers mentioned here evitch (1949) recognized the signi®cance of A. under the Germanized spelling `Fritsch'. voelkelianus as the type species of Anthraco- Fritsch (1904, p. 40) also created a new spe- martus, and discussed the differences between cies, the somewhat broader A. granulatus, Karsch's and Haase's interpretations (see also based on material in Dresden which he im- above). He concluded that the specimen plied was described as A. voelkelianus, i.e., matching Karsch's (1882, ®g. 1) must be re- `. ein Exemplar das A. VoÈlkelianus Fig. 2. garded as the holotype and questioned wheth- bezeichnet war...'. Fritsch based his new er Karsch's two specimens were conspeci®c species and the reconstruction (his ®g. 48) on and if Karsch (®g. 1) and Haase (pl. 30, ®g. a number of specimens, but this reference to 9) had actually ®gured the same fossil. Pe- `Fig. 2' is confusing. If could mean the ®g. 2 trunkevitch did not study the original material, of Karsch's plate, but this particular fossil is and remarked that he was unable to obtain in Berlin (see below). It could refer to the permission to visit Dresden during a post-war counterpart of Karsch's ®g. 2 specimen, but tour of European museums. Correspondence this specimen has been reported from in the MfN, Berlin reveals that in 1951 Pe- Wrocøaw (see below). No locality for A. gran- trunkevitch wrote to Alfred KaÈstner (then at ulatus is stated, but the material is probably the MfN) to ask if someone from Berlin could DUNLOP & ROÈ ûLERÐTRIGONOTARBID ANTHRACOMARTUS VOELKELIANUS 213 visit Dresden and establish the identity of the pository numbers 09446 (Karsch's ®g. 1) and type from the material there seen by Karsch; 09447 (Karsch's ®g. 2). The only difference himself a former curator in the MfN, Berlin. is that in the original plates the specimens Curiously, Petrunkevitch did not ask KaÈst- were drawn on larger, squarer slabs of matrix ner about the Karsch types cited as being in with associated plant material. The actual Berlin and Wrocøaw. It appears that Petrunk- slabs (Figs. 1, 2) are smaller and irregular and evitch simply overlooked the repository de- do not look to have been trimmed, thus it ap- tails in Haase (1890) and Schwarzbach (1935) pears that a certain amount of artistic licence and assumed that all the types of both A. was used in the illustrations (W. Lindert, pers. voelkelianus and A. granulatus were in Dres- comm.). This is not to say that the drawings den (see also Petrunkevitch 1953), as implied of the animals themselves are inaccurate (they by a cursory reading of both Karsch (1882) are actually very good) only that there is a and Fritsch (1904). The unfortunate irony is discrepancy concerning the matrix. that the specimens ®gured by Karsch were all Specimens 09446 and 09447 are the only the time in the Geological Survey of Berlin examples of A.
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