Carboniferous araneomorph spiders reinterpreted as long-bodied harvestmen

Archaeometa nephilina Pocock, 1911 from the Late Carboniferous (Bashkirian/Moscovian: Duckmantian, c.315 Ma) Coal Measures of Coseley in the English West Midlands was originally interpreted as an araneomorph spider (Arachnida: Araneae). It is, in fact, a harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones), albeit one with an unusual, long-bodied morphology. Another Coseley fossil, Arachnometa tuberculata Petrunkevitch, 1949, was also interpreted as an araneomorph spider, but it is not well preserved, and is regarded as Opiliones incertae sedis. Interestingly, the Archaeometa Pocock, 1911 body plan, here also revealed through computed microtomography (µCT), has morphological parallels with some modern laniatorid harvestmen in the family Assammidae. However, the Coal Measures fossils do not preserve unequivocal laniatorid apomorphies, and so are referred to an uncertain position within Phalangida (transferred herein from Araneae). The Archaeometa specimens are further examples of Carboniferous Opiliones, which were originally misidentified, and contribute to a picture of an increasingly diverse Coal Measures harvestman fauna. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E7951158-75F3-46AF-87FB-AE10AD50D94E