Attercopus
Attercopus is an extinct genus of arachnids, containing one species Attercopus fimbriunguis, known from flattened cuticle fossils from the Panther Mountain Formation in Upstate New York. It is placed in the extinct order Uraraneida, spider-like animals able to produce silk, but which lacked true spinnerets and retained a segmented abdomen bearing a flagellum-like tail resembling that of a whip scorpion. They are thought to be close to the origins of spiders. Its name is taken from the English dialect word attercop ("spider"), which came from ("poison-head"), from ("poison"), itself drawn from the Proto-Germanic *aitra- ("poisonous ulcer") and kopp- ("head"). In The Hobbit Tolkien had Bilbo use attercop to insult attacking spiders, the insult possibly deriving from its meaning in Northern England dialect of "peevish, ill-natured person". An important Early Devonian (about ) fossil example from Gilboa, New York, was originally described as a member of the extinct order Trigonotarbida and named Gelasinotarbus? fimbriunguis. It was later assigned to a new genus Attercopus and reinterpreted as the oldest, and most primitive, example of a true spider and described as being the first user of silk in animals.(Araneae). This hypothesis was based on the supposed presence of unique spider features such as