Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of extinct scorpion from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China.
Jeholia longchengi is the first Mesozoic scorpion from China. Image credit: Jie Sun / Xuan et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2025.01.035.
Named Jeholia longchengi, the new species lived approximately 125 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch).
The scorpion’s fossilized remains were recovered from dark gray mudstones of the Yixian Formation at Heishangou village, Chifeng city, Nei Mongol, China.
“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.”
“Three fossil scorpions have been reported from China, including the Miocene scorpion Sinoscorpius shandongensis from Shandong province, the Devonian scorpion Hubeiscorpio gracilitarsis from Hubei province, and the Permian scorpion Eoscorpius sp. from Wuda, Nei Mongol.”
Jeholia longchengi was a member of an Early Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem called the Jehol Biota, which is internationally famous thanks to discoveries of exceptional fossils, including feathered dinosaurs, early birds, diverse mammals and pterosaurs, as well as some arthropod fossils.
“The Jehol Biota remains one of the most significant and prolific fossil sites for studying Early Cretaceous life,” the paleontologists said.
“Despite the numerous fossil species reported, no fossil scorpions have been recorded until now.”
The total length of Jeholia longchengi was approximately 10 cm (4 inches) — larger than other Mesozoic scorpions and considerably larger than many living scorpions.
“Jeholia longchengi likely preyed primarily on diverse insects, including herbivorous, omnivorous, saprophagous, fungivorous, and predatory species, and possibly even on spiders, frogs and small salamanders, lizards, and mammals, which are common in the Jehol Biota,” the researchers said.
“We suggest that potential natural enemies of this Cretaceous scorpion include dinosaurs, birds, and mammals according to previously reported food-web model of the Jehol Biota.”
“However, due to the absence of fossil records of mouthparts, speculations about their feeding habits remain in a preliminary stage.”
“Betweenness centrality is a metric that quantifies the significance of a node in connecting other nodes within a network,” they added.
“It assesses the extent to which a node serves as a bridge, playing a pivotal role in linking other nodes within the network.”
“In the Jehol Biota food web, large scorpions exhibit the highest betweenness centrality among all guilds, underscoring the likelihood that the fossil scorpion may have had extensive ecological interactions with other species in the early terrestrial ecosystem.”
“Our finding contributes new insights into the complexity of food webs in the Jehol Biota,” they concluded.
The team’s paper was published in the journal Science Bulletin.
_____
Qiang Xuan et al. First Mesozoic scorpion from China and its ecological implications. Science Bulletin, published online January 24, 2025; doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2025.01.035
