Pseudotyrannochthoniidae is a family of

pseudoscorpions Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans sin ...

, belonging to the superfamily Chthonioidea. It represents the most basal and primitive group of living pseudoscorpions, containing 50 species in 5 genera. Living members of the group have a strongly disjunct distribution, likely reflecting ancient

vicariance Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

, occurring in Australia, Asia, Southern Africa and Madagascar, Western North America and southern South America. Fossils species are known from the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

and

Bitterfeld amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...

, which represent members of extant Asian genera.

Taxonomy

* '' Afrochthonius'' Beier, 1930 South Africa, Madagascar and Sri Lanka * '' Allochthonius'' Chamberlin, 1929 eastern Asia (Fossil species known from Baltic amber) * '' Centrochthonius'' Beier, 1931 Central Asia (Fossil species known from Bitterfeld amber) * '' Pseudotyrannochthonius'' Beier, 1930 from Chile, Australia, eastern Asia, and the western United States * '' Selachochthonius'' Chamberlin, 1929 South Africa

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21044770 Pseudoscorpion families