A new Palaeoburmesebuthidae scorpion from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthoidea)

Abstract

Mesozoic fossils provide invaluable information about the origin and evolutionary history of scorpions. However, well-preserved scorpions in amber are comparatively rare, greatly limiting our understanding of early scorpion morphological diversity and disparity. Here we describe a new species of the extinct family Palaeoburmesebuthidae, Betaburmesebuthus spinipedis sp. nov., based on a complete female juvenile from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. As some critical characters are hard to interpret, we tentatively place the species in the genus Betaburmesebuthus. We also document, for the first time in a fossil scorpion, five pairs of lateral ocelli on the carapace. Our discovery provides new evidence for the relationship between Palaeoburmesebuthidae and the Recent family Buthidae.