A new Mesozoic record of the pseudoscorpion family Garypinidae from Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) Ajkaite amber, Ajka area, Hungary

Abstract

Pseudoscorpions have a sparse fossil record although they are among the oldest terrestrial lineages with origins extending to the Devonian (ca. 390 Ma). Amongst the 25 extant families of pseudoscorpions, only 14 are known from fossils, most of which are preserved in European ambers from the Eocene. Fossil pseudoscorpions from the Cretaceous of Europe have only been reported from three localities, Archingeay amber (France), from the Rhenish Massif (Germany), and from Álava and Teruel amber (Spain), but only one of these has ever been formally described. Here we add a new fossil pseudoscorpion genus and species, Ajkagarypinus stephani gen. et sp. nov., from an Upper Cretaceous (Santonian, ca. 86.3–83.6 Ma) amber deposit in the Ajka Coal Formation (Ajka area, Hungary), the so-called Ajkaite. This fossil extends the spatial range of the pseudoscorpion family Garypinidae and suggests that they might have been widespread in the whole Eurasian landmasses under humid, subtropical climatic conditions.