title: Permian scorpions from the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz, Germany.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Paleozoic scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones) have been widely documented from the Carboniferous Period; which hosts a remarkable assemblage of more than sixty species including both putative stem- and crown-group fossils. By contrast the succeeding Permian Period is almost completely devoid of records, which are currently restricted to a trace fossil from the early Permian of New Mexico, USA and some limb fragments from the late Permian of the Vologda Region, Russia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ?Opsieobuthus tungeri sp. nov. from the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz, Germany represents the first complete body fossils of scorpions from the Permian. Explosive volcanism preserved these remarkable specimens in situ as part of the palaeosol horizon and bedrock of the Petrified Forest, immediately beneath the Zeisigwald tuff horizon. This dates to the early Permian (Sakmarian) or ca. 291 Ma. Intriguingly, the specimens were obtained from a palaeosol horizon with a compacted network of different-sized woody roots and thus have been preserved in situ in their likely life position, even within their original burrows. Differences in the structure of the comb-like pectines in the two fossils offer evidence for sexual dimorphism, and permit further inferences about the ecology and perhaps even the reproductive biology of these animals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As putative members of a Coal Measures genus, these fossils suggest that at least some Carboniferous scorpion lineages extended their range further into the Permian. This contributes towards a picture of scorpion evolution in which both basal and derived (orthostern) forms coexisted for quite some time; probably from the end of the Carboniferous through to at least the mid Triassic.
authors.affiliation: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity at the Humboldt University Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 43, D-10115, Berlin, Germany. jason.dunlop@mfn-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Jason A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dunlop
authors.affiliation: Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW, UK.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Legg
authors.affiliation: Paleontological Institute, University of Kansas, 1475 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.|Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Selden
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, One John Marshall Drive, Huntington, WV, 25755, USA.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fet
authors.affiliation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Geological Institute, Bernhard von Cotta-Straße, D-09599, Freiberg, Germany.|Kazan Federal University, 420008, Kazan, Russia.
authors.forename: Joerg W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.affiliation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Geological Institute, Bernhard von Cotta-Straße, D-09599, Freiberg, Germany.|Museum für Naturkunde, Moritzstraße 20, D-09111, Chemnitz, Germany.
authors.forename: Ronny
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rößler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D065928:Forests; D005580:Fossils; D005858:Germany; D012605:Scorpions / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Arachnida; Burrows; Chemnitz; Early Permian; Germany; Petrified Forest; Scorpiones; Volcanism