Mesothelae

Mesothelae Temporal range: Pennsylvanian–Present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Heptathela higoensis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mesothelae Pocock, 1892[1]
Subdivisions
†Palaeothele Liphistiidae Heptathelidae

The Mesothelae are a suborder of spiders (order Araneae). As of April 2024^[update], two extant families were accepted by the World Spider Catalog, Liphistiidae and Heptathelidae. Alternatively, the Heptathelidae can be treated as a subfamily of a more broadly circumscribed Liphistiidae. There are also a number of extinct families.

This suborder is thought to form the sister group to all other living spiders, and to retain ancestral characters, such as a segmented abdomen with spinnerets in the middle and two pairs of book lungs. Extant members of the Mesothelae are medium to large spiders with eight eyes grouped on a tubercle. They are found only in China, Japan, and southeast Asia.^[2] The oldest known Mesothelae spiders are from the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago.