Nephila

Nephila is a genus of araneomorph spiders noted for the impressive webs they weave. Nephila consists of numerous species found in warmer regions around the world, although some species formerly included in the genus have been moved to Trichonephila. They are commonly called golden silk orb-weavers, golden orb-weavers, giant wood spiders, or banana spiders.

Nephila

Ashwin06k · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
golden silk orb-weaverPBDB
Sits inside
NephilinaePBDB
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Arachnida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arachnida
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Arachnida

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 13.82 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 7 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesMiocene — about 5 of 7 occurrencesMiocene57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences48.07 Mya20.45 Mya56.8 Mya13 Mya

7 occurrences of Nephila on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

7 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WPalana — 27.87°N, 72.87°E

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The named rock units Nephila has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nephila and its relatives

Miocene

Where Nephila and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

186 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Nephila, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 7 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Nephila

Credit
Ashwin06k
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNephilinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leach 1815