A fossil harvestman identified using advanced imaging techniques shows that extinct arachnid lineages once lived in Europe. The discovery expands the known diversity of amber-preserved species in the region.
A team of researchers from Germany and Bulgaria, led by SNSB paleontologist Christian Bartel, has identified a previously unknown species of harvestman preserved in 35-million-year-old amber from Ukraine and the Baltic region.
This arachnid belongs to a group that no longer exists in Europe today. The findings were reported in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Amber fossils reveal extinct diversity
The specimen was exceptionally preserved after becoming trapped in tree resin millions of years ago, a process that allows fine anatomical details to survive over geological time. The fossil comes from Eocene amber deposits found in both Ukraine and the Baltic region.
Scientists determined that it represents a new species within the Ortholasmatinae subfamily. Members of this group are known for their distinctive appearance, with heavily ornamented bodies and intricate, sometimes lattice-like structures around the head. Until this discovery, no fossil examples of Ortholasmatinae had been documented.
Balticolasma wunderlichi is the name given to this newly described species by a research team led by Dr. Christian Bartel of the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB) and Prof. Plamen Mitov of Sofia University, Bulgaria.
The fossil shares key features with living relatives, including a complex surface texture and a prominent eye mound.
To examine its three-dimensional structure in detail, the team used advanced imaging techniques. X-ray scans conducted with a computed tomography system at the Helmholtz Center Hereon at the Deutsches-Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg revealed a network of fine ridges across the upper body and intricate mouthparts with multiple appendages.
Fossil record reshapes geographic history
“The discovery of an ortholasmatine harvestman in European amber deposits surprised us. Harvestmen of this group no longer exist in Europe today. Relatives of these animals are currently found only in East Asia as well as in North and Central America. Evidently, 35 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch, these harvestmen were much more widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere than they are today,” says SNSB paleontologist Dr. Christian Bartel, the study’s lead author.
Bartel conducts research at the Bamberg Natural History Museum, one of ten museums comprising the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB).
“Baltic amber is known for its great diversity of fossils. It continually reveals species that no longer occur in Europe today. The fact that the new harvestman species was also found in Ukraine shows once again that the harvestman faunas of both regions were likely similar. With this new addition, the number of known harvestman species from Baltic amber rises to 19, and those from the ancient Ukrainian Rovno amber to seven. Six species are found in both regions,” says co-author Dr. Jason Dunlop of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.
Reference: “3D analyses of the first ortholasmatine harvestmen from European Eocene ambers” by Christian Bartel, Plamen G. Mitov, Jason A. Dunlop, and Jörg U. Hammel, 2026, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
DOI: 10.4202/app.01283.2025
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