Osmooka, a new spider genus from Madagascar: a surprising relative of the Australian fauna (Araneae: Paraplectanoididae)
Data files
Dec 10, 2025 version files 7.67 MB
Abstract
Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot with high endemism and ancient phylogenetic diversity. We here report the discovery of Osmooka aphana gen. nov., sp. nov. from Marojejy National Park. Phylogenomic analyses place Osmooka as sister to the Australian Paraplectanoides Keyserling, 1886, and this doublet is sister to Nephilidae Simon, 1894. When proposed, Paraplectanoididae Kuntner, Coddington, Agnarsson & Bond, 2023 was exclusively Australian and monogeneric, but was predicted to contain additional, undescribed taxa. The discovery of Osmooka and its phylogenetic placement in Paraplectanoididae supports this prediction. We present a taxonomic treatment of Osmooka and Paraplectanoides, and a reappraisal of Orbipurae morphological homologies. With this new discovery, we revalidate Paraplectanoididae, Nephilidae, and Phonognathidae Simon, 1894, ranks resurrected as exclusive, monophyletic, and well-diagnosed families, whereas Araneidae Clerck, 1757 requires further redefinition. Finally, we test the hypothesis of East Gondwanan vicariant origin of Osmooka and Paraplectanoides. This scenario would predict an ancient age of their ancestor, predating the 130 Ma breakup of Gondwana. Divergence dating refutes this hypothesis by estimating their common ancestor at 57 Ma. Rather than through vicariance, the disjunct distribution of Osmooka and Paraplectanoides is best explained through Cenozoic intercontinental dispersal and/or extinctions. Potential discovery of additional paraplectanoidid diversity might better elucidate the timing, modes, and trajectories of historic dispersal and extinction events.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.573n5tbkk
Description of the data and file structure
We have submitted our aligned UCE matrix (mafft-nexus-clean-min-50p-taxa-trimal.phylip), the best scheme for partition (mafft-nexus-clean-min-50p-taxa-trimal.charsets.best_scheme), and the raw tree files generated from IQ-TREE2 (mafft-nexus-clean-min-50p-taxa-trimal.charsets.treefile).
Files and variables
File: mafft-nexus-clean-min-50p-taxa-trimal.charsets.best_scheme
Description: This file contains the best scheme that was used to partition the UCE matrix.
File: mafft-nexus-clean-min-50p-taxa-trimal.charsets.treefile
Description: This file contains the raw treefile reconstructed using IQ-TREE2.
File: mafft-nexus-clean-min-50p-taxa-trimal.phylip
Description: This file contains the aligned UCE matrix with 50% taxon coverage analyzed in this research. The matrix is in Phylip format.
Code/software
All files can be opened and edited in Windows Notepad. However, we recommend using sequence editing software (e.g., MEGA) and visualization software for phylogenetic trees (e.g., FigTree) to view and edit the aligned UCE matrix and the treefile, respectively. To re-run the analyses, please use IQ-TREE2 (Minh et al. 2020; https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa015).
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- NA
Data was derived from the following sources:
- The data used and analyzed in this study were acquired originally and from our previously published article by Kuntner et al. 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syad021).
