Afrarchaea grimaldii, a new species of Archaeidae (Araneae) in Cretaceous Burmese amber

Afrarchaea grimaldii new species (Archaeidae, Archaeinae) from 88-95 Ma (Cenomanian-Turonian) Upper Cretaceous amber (Burmite) from Myanmar (Burma) is described. This is the first spider to be described from this deposit and is the oldest known Archaeidae sensu stricto extending the known range of the family by approximately 50 Ma from the previously oldest recorded specimens in Baltic and Bitterfeld ambers, and provides further evidence that spiders were not severely affected by the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event. It represents the oldest fossil record of an araneophagic spider. This species could be used to argue for both the theory of mobilistic biogeography and ousted relicts to explain the zoogeography of the genus, but until new data become available, supports neither reliably.