Protoischnuridae Carvalho & Lourenço, 2001

Soleglad, Michael E. & Fet, Victor, 2003, High-level systematics and phylogeny of the extant scorpions (Scorpiones: Orthosterni), Euscorpius 2003 (11), pp. 1-175 : 117

Family Protoischnuridae Carvalho & Lourenço, 2001 – Extinct.

Type Genus. Protoischnurus Carvalho & Lourenço, 2001 . – Extinct.

Composition. The family includes two genera: Protoischnurus Carvalho & Lourenço, 2001 and Araripescorpius Campos, 1986 (the latter assigned here provisionally by Carvalho & Lourenço (2001)).

GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE. Lower Cretaceous of Brazil (Crato member, Santana Formation; ca. 110 Mya).

Taxonomic history. Araripescorpius was earlier listed under “ Scorpionoidea sensu lato ” (Campos, 1986; Selden, 1993), and under “ Orthosternina Incertae Sedis ” by Fet et al. (2000). Carvalho & Lourenço (2001) placed this family in the superfamily Scorpionoidea (sensu Lourenço, 2000a) commenting that Protoischnurus shows some affinities with the modern families Scorpionidae and Ischnuridae (now Liochelidae ).

Biogeographic history. The South American Cretaceous record of Protoischnuridae has a particular biogeographic importance for interpreting scorpion evolution. We interpret Scorpionoidea as the Pangean superfamily based on its modern biogeographic distribution, and typical scorpionoid features of Protoischnuridae confirm that by the time when the Gondwanaland breakup was complete, scorpionoids indeed existed in South America.

Diagnosis. See Carvalho & Lourenço (2001) for details on the diagnosis of this family.

Discussion. We agree with placement of Protoischnuridae in Scorpionoidea . However, more work (currently ongoing) on rich Santana fossils needs to be done to clarify position of Araripescorpius , which shares some features with Chactoidea .