Jeholia longchengi is the first Mesozoic scorpion from China. Image credit: Jie Sun / Xuan et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2025.01.035.
SciNews has a story about a 125 million year old scorpion. The amazing fossil was discovered in the Yixian Formation at Heishangou village, Chifeng city, Nei Mongol, China. The fossil animal has been named Jeholia longchengi and dates to the early Cretaceous Period. The paper "First Mesozoic scorpion from China and its ecological implications" was published in the journal Science Bulletin.
“Scorpions belong to the class Arachnida within Arthropoda, with relatively few fossil records,” said first author Dr. Qiang Xuan, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and the Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues.
“The earliest scorpions come from the mid Silurian, and at least some of them have been interpreted as transitional forms from sea to land.”
“Despite being among the earliest terrestrial arthropods, fossil and living scorpions retain a largely conservative body plan.”
“Mesozoic scorpions are mainly from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, whereas compression fossil of scorpions normally deposited in the strata are relatively rare except in the Late Triassic Keuper Sandstone Formation of England and the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil.”
