The first scorpion fossil from the Cretaceous amber of France. New implications for the phylogeny of Chactoidea

A fossil belonging to a new family, genus and species of scorpion, Palaeoeuscorpiidae fam. n., Palaeoeuscorpius gallicus gen. n., sp. n., is described from the Early Cretaceous amber of France. This is the first scorpion to have been found and described from French amber (±100 Myr). The new family, genus and species are unquestionable chactoid elements and can be classified together with extant families within the Chactoidea. This suggests that modern chactoid scorpions belong to lineages present for at least 100 Myr. To cite this article: W.R. Lourenço, C. R. Palevol 2 (2003).