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Issue: Vol. 5 No. 5: September 2022
Type: Article
Published: 2022-09-22
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.5.5.11
Page range: 493–504
Abstract views: 384
PDF downloaded: 13

Hirsutisoma grimaldii sp. nov., a ca. 99-million-year-old ricinuleid (Primoricinulei, Hirsutisomidae) from Cretaceous Burmese amber with a corticolous, scansorial lifestyle

Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, U.S.A.
Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, U.S.A.; Laboratory of Entomology, Department of Bioresource Development, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1737 Funako, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243 0034, Japan
Zoologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Greifswald, Loitzer Straße 26, 17489, Greifswald, Germany
Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, U.S.A.
Primoricinulei Hirsutisomidae Arachnida Ricinulei fossil Burmese amber corticolous scansorial

Abstract

Ricinulei Thorell, 1876 is an order of Arachnida currently represented in the New and Old Worlds by 103 living species. The order is also represented in the fossil record from the Carboniferous (ca. 305–319 Ma) and the Cretaceous (ca. 99 Ma) periods. In the present contribution, Hirsutisoma grimaldii sp. nov., a new extinct species of the suborder Primoricinulei Wunderlich, 2015, is described from a specimen preserved in Cretaceous Burmese amber. The specimen is a well-preserved adult male in which several taxonomically informative structures are visible, allowing the new species to be differentiated from Hirsutisoma bruckschi Wunderlich, 2017, the only other congener for which a male is known. This description raises the number of Cretaceous Ricinulei species to six. A comparative table documents morphological differences among the various species of this lineage. Hypotheses concerning the paleoecology and functional morphology of this species and, by extrapolation, other primoricinuleids, are presented. The evidence suggests that Primoricinulei were corticolous, scansorial predators.

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