Dataset for: Burma terrane amber fauna shows connections to Gondwana and transported Gondwanan lineages to the northern hemisphere (Araneae: Palpimanoidea)

Burmese amber is a significant source of fossils that documents the
mid-Cretaceous biota. This deposit was formed around 99 Ma on the Burma
Terrane, which broke away from Gondwana and later collided with Asia,
although the timing is disputed. Palpimanoidea is a dispersal-limited
group that was a dominant element of the Mesozoic spider fauna, and has an
extensive fossil record, particularly from Burmese amber. Using
morphological and molecular data, evolutionary relationships of living and
fossil Palpimanoidea are examined. Divergence dating with fossils as
terminal tips, followed by ancestral range estimations, shows timing of
diversification is contemporaneous with continental break-up and that
widespread ancestral ranges divide into lineages that inherit different
Pangean fragments, consistent with vicariance. Our results suggest that
the Burmese amber fauna has ties to Gondwana due to a historical
connection in the Early Cretaceous, and that the Burma Terrane facilitated
biotic exchange by transporting lineages from Gondwana into the Holarctic
in the Cretaceous.