Abstract
Background: Paleozoic scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones) have been widely documented from the Carboniferous
Period; which hosts a remarkable assemblage of more than sixty species including both putative stem- and crowngroup
fossils. By contrast the succeeding Permian Period is almost completely devoid of records, which are currently
restricted to a trace fossil from the early Permian of New Mexico, USA and some limb fragments from the late Permian
of the Vologda Region, Russia.
Results: ?Opsieobuthus tungeri sp. nov. from the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz, Germany represents the first complete
body fossils of scorpions from the Permian. Explosive volcanism preserved these remarkable specimens in situ as part
of the palaeosol horizon and bedrock of the Petrified Forest, immediately beneath the Zeisigwald tuff horizon. This
dates to the early Permian (Sakmarian) or ca. 291 Ma. Intriguingly, the specimens were obtained from a palaeosol horizon
with a compacted network of different-sized woody roots and thus have been preserved in situ in their likely life position,
even within their original burrows. Differences in the structure of the comb-like pectines in the two fossils offer evidence
for sexual dimorphism, and permit further inferences about the ecology and perhaps even the reproductive biology of
these animals.
Conclusions: As putative members of a Coal Measures genus, these fossils suggest that at least some Carboniferous
scorpion lineages extended their range further into the Permian. This contributes towards a picture of scorpion
evolution in which both basal and derived (orthostern) forms coexisted for quite some time; probably from the end of
the Carboniferous through to at least the mid Triassic.
Citation
Dunlop, J. A., Legg, D. A., Selden, P. A., Fet, V., Schneider, J. W., & Rößler, R. (2016). Permian scorpions from the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz, Germany. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 16(1). doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0634-z