Smarididae non det Kreide Hkamti Myanmar Ar2361

Smarididae is a family of

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...

s belonging to the order

Trombidiformes Trombidiformes is a large, diverse order of mites. Taxonomy In 1998, Trombidiformes was divided into the Sphaerolichida and the Prostigmata. The group has few synapomorphies by which it can be defined, unlike the other major group of acariform ...

. These large

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

y mites have long oval bodies, distinctively pointed in front. They are usually red and densely hairy with slender legs, sometimes very long. They have either one or two pairs of eyes.

Fossil record

The

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

smaridid '' Immensmaris chewbaccei'' had idiosoma of more than in length and was the largest fossil acariform mite and also the largest erythraeoid mite ever recorded.J. A. Dunlop, K. Frahnert, and J. Makol. 2018
A giant mite in Cretaceous Burmese amber
Fossil Record 21:285-290

Fossil record

References

Further reading