A review on fossil scorpions found in amber

 

Amber is fossilized tree resin that are are popular as jewelry because of its fantastic colors and beautiful looks. But amber is also valuable because it sometimes have trapped animals and plants inside. Fossilized scorpions in amber is very rare, but quite a few specimens have been found and described.

Wilson Lourenco has recently published a review on fossilized scorpions found in amber from different parts of the world and how the study of these can contribute to our knowledge of today's scorpions. 

Abstract:
This synoptic review aims to bring some general information on fossil scorpions, namely those trapped in amber – fossilized resin – ranging from Lower Cretaceous through the Palaeocene and up to the Miocene. The question to be addressed is how the study of these fossils can be connected with possible present scorpionism problems. A precise knowledge of these ancient lineages provides information about the evolution of extant lineages, including the buthoids, which contain most known noxious species. Among the Arthropods found trapped in amber, scorpions are considered rare. A limited number of elements have been described from the Late Tertiary Dominican and Mexican amber, while the most ancient Tertiary amber from the Baltic region produced more consistent results in the last 30 years, primarily focusing on a single limited lineage. Contrarily, the Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, also called Burmite, has yielded and continues to yield a significant number of results represented by several distinct lineages, which attest to the considerable degree of diversity that existed in the Burmese amber producing forests. As in my previous similar contributions to this journal, the content of this note is primarily addressed to non-specialists whose research embraces scorpions in various fields such as venom toxins and public health. An overview knowledge of at least some fossil lineages can eventually help to clarify why some extant elements associated with the buthoids represent dangerous species while others are not noxious.

Reference:
Lourenco WR. Scorpions trapped in amber: a remarkable window on their evolution over time from the Mesozoic period to present days. J Venom Anim Toxins Incl Trop Dis. 2023;29:e20230040. [Open Access]