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The phylogeny of fossil whip spiders

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, April 2017
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

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1 news outlet
blogs
2 blogs
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20 X users
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1 Facebook page
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23 Wikipedia pages

Citations

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37 Dimensions

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44 Mendeley
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Title
The phylogeny of fossil whip spiders
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, April 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12862-017-0931-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Russell J. Garwood, Jason A. Dunlop, Brian J. Knecht, Thomas A. Hegna

Abstract

Arachnids are a highly successful group of land-dwelling arthropods. They are major contributors to modern terrestrial ecosystems, and have a deep evolutionary history. Whip spiders (Arachnida, Amblypygi), are one of the smaller arachnid orders with ca. 190 living species. Here we restudy one of the oldest fossil representatives of the group, Graeophonus anglicus Pocock, 1911 from the Late Carboniferous (Duckmantian, ca. 315 Ma) British Middle Coal Measures of the West Midlands, UK. Using X-ray microtomography, our principal aim was to resolve details of the limbs and mouthparts which would allow us to test whether this fossil belongs in the extant, relict family Paracharontidae; represented today by a single, blind species Paracharon caecus Hansen, 1921. Tomography reveals several novel and significant character states for G. anglicus; most notably in the chelicerae, pedipalps and walking legs. These allowed it to be scored into a phylogenetic analysis together with the recently described Paracharonopsis cambayensis Engel & Grimaldi, 2014 from the Eocene (ca. 52 Ma) Cambay amber, and Kronocharon prendinii Engel & Grimaldi, 2014 from Cretaceous (ca. 99 Ma) Burmese amber. We recovered relationships of the form ((Graeophonus (Paracharonopsis + Paracharon)) + (Charinus (Stygophrynus (Kronocharon (Charon (Musicodamon + Paraphrynus)))))). This tree largely reflects Peter Weygoldt's 1996 classification with its basic split into Paleoamblypygi and Euamblypygi lineages; we were able to score several of his characters for the first time in fossils. Our analysis draws into question the monophyly of the family Charontidae. Our data suggest that Graeophonus is a crown group amblypygid, and falls within a monophyletic Paleoamblypgi clade, but outside the family Paracharontidae (= Paracharonopsis + Paracharon). Our results also suggest a new placement for the Burmese amber genus Kronocharon, a node further down from its original position. Overall, we offer a broad phylogenetic framework for both the fossil and Recent whip spiders against which future discoveries can be tested.

X Demographics

X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 44 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 2%
Netherlands 1 2%
Brazil 1 2%
Unknown 41 93%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 10 23%
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 14%
Researcher 5 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 9%
Student > Master 4 9%
Other 5 11%
Unknown 10 23%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 21 48%
Environmental Science 4 9%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 9%
Arts and Humanities 1 2%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 1 2%
Other 3 7%
Unknown 10 23%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 36. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 December 2023.
All research outputs
#1,122,446
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#253
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#22,244
of 323,266 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#3
of 65 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 323,266 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 65 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.