New Species of Pseudoscorpion Found Preserved in 50-Million-Year-Old Amber

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of fossil pseudoscorpion from the Eocene-period Cambay amber of Western India.

Geogaranya valiyaensis. Image credit: Agnihotri et al., doi: 10.26879/1276.

Pseudoscorpions are an order of the earliest arthropods that colonized the landmass of the Earth during the Early Devonian epoch.

This diversified order occupies more than 3% of the total known arachnid species.

“Pseudoscorpions are an ancient lineage of terrestrial arachnids, which are morphologically similar to true scorpions but lack a tail and stinger,” said Dr. Priya Agnihotri from the DST-Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences and colleagues.

“Certain families possess a distinct venom apparatus in the chelal fingers of the pedipalps, which evolved independently from that of scorpions and spiders.”

“Recent studies have also supported the inclusion of pseudoscorpions as the sister group of scorpions.”

“Because of their delicate bodies and small size, these fossils are mostly discovered in amber deposits across the world, rather than in sedimentary deposits,” they added.

“Forty-nine pseudoscorpion species have been documented from the Baltic and Rovno amber which is of Eocene in age.”

The newly-discovered pseudoscorpion species belongs to the small family Geogarypidae.

Named Geogaranya valiyaensis, it shows strong resemblance with the modern genus Geogarypus from Sri Lanka, India and New Guinea.

“The family Geogarypidae is amongst those groups of bark-dwelling and litter-dwelling species which are similar to the family Garypidae in having a characteristic subtriangular carapace and eyes near the anterior margin,” the paleontologists said.

“The family contains more than seventy species with habitat preferences suitable in tropical and subtropical regions with a few reported from temperate biomes.”

“Geogarypidae are more common in the Baltic and Rovno amber with a few records from the Cretaceous Burmese amber.”

“Unlike their scarce records in fossils, their modern counterparts have been recorded from all major biogeographical regions, including Europe, Central Asia, North America and North Africa.”

A 50-million-year-old piece of Cambay amber with Geogaranya valiyaensis was found in the open-cast Valia lignite mine, which is part of the Cambay Shale Formation, in the Cambay Basin, Gujarat, India.

“The Cambay Shale Formation overlies the Deccan traps and is underlain by the Paleocene-lower Eocene Vagadkhol Formation,” the researchers said.

According to the team, Geogaranya valiyaensis is one of the smallest known adult fossils of pseudoscorpion in amber from the Cambay Basin.

Its discovery adds to the bark-dwelling arthropod biodiversity identified in the Eocene amber from Western India.

“The discovery of one of the smallest known pseudoscorpion adults in amber from the Cambay Basin provides insights into the bark-dwelling arthropod taxa, similar to fossil taxa recorded in Baltic and Bitterfeld amber, which survived during the Early Eocene,” the scientists concluded.

“The scanning electron microscopic study reveals diagnostic traits of the fossil, such as exceptionally enlarged pedipalps, which increases the idea of phoresy and suggests that species from non-arboreal habitats may have mistakenly been transported into amber and related to their flying hosts.”

The discovery of Geogaranya valiyaensis is reported in a paper in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica.

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Priya Agnihotri et al. 2024. A new genus and species of fossil pseudoscorpion (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones) from the Eocene amber of Western India. Palaeontologia Electronica 27 (2): a26; doi: 10.26879/1276

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