Pseudoscorpions, one of the oldest land lineages dating from the Middle Devonian (c. 385 million years ago), with a limited fossil record, primarily as inclusions in amber. Most of the available fossils date from the Cenozoic era, making it difficult to comprehensively understand their evolutionary history and diversification over time. Here we report the first fossil of this order, discovered in Early Cretaceous (Late Albian) amber from Spain. Two new genera and species of the Garypinidae family have been described from Alaba amber (Peñaserrada II outcrop, Alaba). Cletogalipinus zaragozai generation. etc. november and Ithioleorpium arabensis generation. etc. NovemberRemarkably, the holotype is Cletogalipinus zaragozai Demonstrates preservation of internal soft tissues. The observed variation in the allorium of both fossil galipinids serves as strong evidence for a biphyletic theory within the clade, a hypothesis that was already well established before the Early Cretaceous. In addition, an incomplete specimen consisting of an isolated palpation thought to belong to the Pseudogarypidae (an extant genus) Pseudoglypse Ellingsen) is described from San Just Amber (Teruel province). These discoveries mark the earliest occurrences of Galipinidae (Garipinoideae) and Pseudogaripidae (Phaeroidea) in the fossil record. These not only contribute to the understanding of the diverse pseudoscorpion fauna of Spanish amber, but also provide valuable insights for estimating divergence times of pseudoscorpion families and potentially for biogeographical studies. .
Sánchez-Garcia, A., Palencia, L., Delcros, X., Peñalver, E. (2024). Pseudoscorpion (Arachnida, Pseudoscorpion) collected from late Cretaceous Spanish amber. paleontology papers, 10(6), e1608. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1608
