''Uintascorpio'' is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

in the family

Buthidae The Buthidae are the largest family of scorpions, containing about 100 genera and 1339 species as of 2022. A few very large genera ('' Ananteris'', '' Centruroides'', '' Compsobuthus'', or '' Tityus'') are known, but a high number of species-poor ...

and containing the

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

species ''Uintascorpio halandrasorum''. The species is known only from the

Middle Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', ' Dawn') a ...

Parachute Member, part of the

Green River Formation The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River (Colorado River), Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sedimen ...

, in the Piceance Creek Basin,

Garfield County Garfield County is the name of several counties in the United States: * Garfield County, Colorado *Garfield County, Montana *Garfield County, Nebraska *Garfield County, Oklahoma * Garfield County, Utah *Garfield County, Washington Garfie ...

, northwestern

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, USA.

History and classification

''Uintascorpio halandrasorum'' is known only from one fossil, the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, specimen number "DMNH No. 6004". The specimen is composed of a single entire adult that is preserved as a

compression fossil A compression fossil is a fossil preserved in sedimentary rock that has undergone physical compression. While it is uncommon to find animals preserved as good compression fossils, it is very common to find plants preserved this way. The reason f ...

in finely bedded, light gray

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

. The fossil was recovered by Gus and Christine Halandras of

Meeker, Colorado Meeker is a statutory town in and the county seat of Rio Blanco County, Colorado, United States, that is the most populous municipality in the county. The town population was 2,374 at the 2020 United States census. Description The town is ...

from outcrops of the

s Parachute Member exposing sediments of Lake Unitah,

Rio Blanco County, Colorado Rio Blanco County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 6,529. The county seat is Meeker, Colorado, Meeker. The name of the county is the Spanish language, Spa ...

, USA. The type specimen is currently preserved in the paleoentomology collections housed in the

Denver Museum of Nature and Science The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help mus ...

, located in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado, USA. ''Uintascorpio'' was first studied by M. L. Perry with his 1995 brief description

type description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

of the genus and species being published in a Grand Junction Geological Society publication. The

generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

name was coined by Perry as a combination of the Latin "scorpio" for scorpion, and "Uintah" referring to Lake Uintah of the Green River Formation. The

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''halandrasorum'' is in recognition of Gus and Christine Halandras. The species name was originally spelled ''halandrasi'' by Perry, however, per the naming regulations in the

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted Convention (norm), convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific name, scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the I ...

, the species name was corrected to ''halandrasorum'' in the 2004 redescription of ''Uintascorpio''. When ''Uintascorpio halandrasorum'' was described, Perry placed the genus tentatively into the family

Vaejovidae Vaejovidae is a family (biology), family of scorpions, currently comprising 25 genera and over 230 species, found in North America. The species of the family are found from western Guatemala, throughout Mexico, and in the United States, mostly we ...

. This placement was not followed, however by later authors who mentioned the genus. The genus was suggested to be a member of Buthidae in a 1998 by Kovařík and possibly a synonym of the modern genus '' Rhopalurus''. Papers in 2001 and 2003 left the genus as " Orthosternina ''incertae sedis''" due to the limited nature of the type description and its illustrations. The ''Uintascorpio halandrasorum'' was redescribed in 2004 by Jorge Santiago-Blay, Michael Soleglad, and Victor Fet. In the redescription the placement of ''Uintascorpio'' into Buthidae was confirmed, but the synonymy with ''Rhopalurus'' as suggested by Kovařík was not.

Description

The ''U. halandrasorum'' type specimen is a well-preserved complete adult shown in dorsal view. The specimen is in preserved length with an estimated total length of . The specimen has a general coloration of brown tones, with the main carapace,

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. Wasps, bees and a ...

, and

metasoma The metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or tagma (biology), tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the digestive tract, respiratory sy ...

being a slightly darker tone than the

pedipalps Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among Chelicerata, chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to ...

and legs. The tips of the cheliceral fingers are a dark brown, as is the articulation mechanism on patellae of leg IV.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7878114

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Eocene arthropods Fossil taxa described in 1995

Natural history of Colorado Scorpion genera Eocene arthropods of North America