Scorpiones

From Palaeos

<==Scorpiones [Scorpiniata]

   |  i. s.: Belisarius xambeui Simon 1879
   |         Euscorpius [Euscorpiidae]
   |           |--E. flavicaudis
   |           `--E. italicus
   |         Hadrurus
   |           |--H. arizonensis
   |           |--H. concolor
   |           |--H. hirsutus
   |           |--H. obscurus
   |           |--H. pinteri
   |           `--H. spadix
   |         Anuroctonus
   |         Uroctonus
   |         Vaejovis [Vaejovidae]
   |           |--V. eusthenura
   |           `--V. spinigerus
   |         Mesophonus
   |         Bothriuridae
   |         Joctonus manicatus Thorell 1876
   |         Dacurus galbineus (Koch 1838) (see below for synonymy)
   |         Smeringurus aridus
   |         Megacormus gertschi
   |         Brotheas granulatus
   |         Heterometrus petersii
   |         Hemilychas alexandrinus (Hirst 1911)
   |         Broteochactas trezzi
   |--Palaeoscorpius
   `--+--Protoscorpiones
      |    |--Dolichophonus
      |    `--Palaeophonidae
      |         |--Palaeophonus
      |         `--Allopalaeophonus
      `--+--Proscorpius [Palaeoscorpiones]
         `--Orthosterni

Dacurus galbineus (Koch 1838) [=Centrurus galbineus, C. galbinus (l. c.), Caucon galbineus]

* Type species of generic name indicated

[edit] Description

These are the scorpions, carnivorous arachnids that have their pedipalps modified into powerful, claw-like pincers. All scorpions have the last six segments of their bodies, the metasoma, modified into a tail that bears the telson (the segment placed on the sixth segment), which has been modified into a venom-injecting organ used for subduing prey and potential predators.

Scorpions have an extensive, albeit notoriously patchy fossil record extending all the way back to the Silurian, where they began as a group of small, eurypterid-like creatures. They made the transition from marine to terrestrial environments some time between the late Silurian and early Devonian. All of the marine scorpions would eventually die out during the Devonian due to either climatic changes, or competition and or predation from various predatory gnathostome vertebrates and the larger, fiercer eurypterids.

[edit] References

Acosta, L. E. 2002. Patrones zoogeográficos de los Opiliones Argentinos (Arachnida: Opiliones). Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 6: 69-84.

Acosta, L. E., & G. Machado. 2007. Diet and foraging. In Harvestmen: The Biology of Opiliones (R. Pinto-da-Rocha, G. Machado & G. Giribet, eds.) pp. 309-338. Harvard University Press: Cambridge (Massachusetts).

Acosta, L. E., & J. A. Ochoa. 2002. Lista de los escorpiones bolivianos (Chelicerata: Scorpiones), con notas sobre su distribución. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 61 (3-4): 15-23.

Banks, N. 1906. Arachnida from the Bahamas. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 22: 185-189.

Carvalho, M. da G. P. de, & W. R. Lourenço. 2001. A new family of fossil scorpions from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil. Comptes Rendus de L’Academie des Sciences Serie II Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes 332: 711-716.

Corey, D. T., & I. J. Stout. 1990. Ground surface arachnids in sandhill communities of Florida. Journal of Arachnology 18: 167-172.

Engel, M. S. 2001. A monograph of the Baltic amber bees and evolution of the Apoidea (Hymenoptera). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 259: 1-192.

Fet, V., & G. Bechly. 2001. Liochelidae, fam. nov. (Scorpiones): Proposed introduction as a substitute name for Ischnuridae Simon, 1879, as an alternative to the suggested amendment of Ischnurinae Fraser, 1957 (Insecta, Odonata) to Ischnurainae in order to remove homonymy. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 58 (4): 280-281.

Giribet, G., G. D. Edgecombe, W. C. Wheeler & C. Babbitt. 2002. Phylogeny and systematic position of Opiliones: A combined analysis of chelicerate relationships using morphological and molecular data. Cladistics 18: 5-70.

Jäger, P. 1998. Das Typenmaterial der Spinnentiere (Arachnida: Acari, Amblypygi, Araneae, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, Scorpiones, Uropygi) aus dem Museum Wiesbaden. Jahrbuecher des Nassauischen Vereins fuer Naturkunde 119: 81-91.

Karsch, F. 1892. Arachniden von Ceylon und von Minikoy gesammelt von den Herren Doctoren P. und F. Sarasin. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift 36 (2): 267-310.

Koch, L., & E. Keyserling. 1884-1890. Die Arachniden Australiens nach der Natur beschrieben und abgebildet vol. 2. Bauer & Raspe: Nürnberg.

Lourenço, W. R. 2003. The first scorpion fossil from the Cretaceous amber of France. New implications for the phylogeny of Chactoidea. Comptes Rendus Palevol 2: 213-219.

Meyer-Rochow, V. B., & A. R. Liddle. 1988. Structure and function of the eyes of two species of opilionid from New Zealand glow-worm caves (Megalopsalis tumida: Palpatores, and Hendea myersi cavernicola: Laniatores). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B – Biological Sciences 233: 293-319.

Miller, S. A., & J. P. Harley. 1996. Zoology (3rd ed.) Wm. C. Brown Publishers: Dubuque (Iowa).

Ochoa, J. A., & L. E. Acosta. 2002. Orobothriurus atiquipa, a new bothriurid species (Scorpiones) from Lomas in southern Peru. Journal of Arachnology 30: 98-103.

Pinto-da-Rocha, R. 2002. Systematic review and cladistic analysis of the Brazilian subfamily Caelopyginae (Opiliones: Gonyleptidae). Arquivos de Zoologia, Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo 36: 357-464.

Santiago-Blay, J. A., V. Fet, M. E. Soleglad & P. R. Craig. 2004. The second Cretaceous scorpion specimen from Burmese amber (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 2 (2): 147-152.

Smith, G. T., & S. R. Morton. 1990. Responses by scorpions to fire-initiates succession in arid Australian spinifex grasslands. Journal of Arachnology 18: 241-244.

Soleglad, M. E., & V. Fet. 2001. Evolution of scorpion orthobothriotaxy: A cladistic approach. Euscorpius 1: 1-38.

Villarreal-Manzanilla, O., C. DoNascimiento & C. J. Rodríguez. 2007. Two new species of the enigmatic genus Stenophareus (Opiliones: Laniatores: Stygnidae) from the Venezuelan Guiana Shield. Zootaxa 1471: 43-51.

Volschenk, E. S. 2005. A new technique for examining surface morphosculpture of scorpions. Journal of Arachnology 33: 820-825.

Wills, L. J. 1970. The Triassic succession in the central Midlands in its regional setting. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 126: 225-283.

Credits

Christopher 02:43, 27 July 2008 (PDT)