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A German-Bulgarian research team led by SNSB paleontologist Christian Bartel has discovered a new species of harvestman in 35-million-year-old Ukrainian and Baltic amber. The animal is related to harvestmen that are now extinct in Europe. The researchers published their findings in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
The arachnid was perfectly preserved 35 million years ago in a drop of tree resin—amber fossils are a stroke of luck for science. The newly discovered harvestman originates from Eocene amber deposits in Ukraine and the Baltic region. Paleontologists identified the animal as a previously unknown species from the Ortholasmatinae subfamily. Harvestmen in this group are often characterized by an unusual appearance: their bodies are highly ornamented, with numerous, sometimes lattice-like appendages in the head region. Until now fossil Ortholasmatinae were unknown.
Balticolasma wunderlichi is the name of the first fossil representative of these harvestmen, discovered and described 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. Like their modern relatives, the fossils also exhibit a highly structured body surface and a particularly prominent eye mound. To reveal all the details of their three-dimensional anatomy, the researchers used special x-rays: scans of the harvestman fossils using a computed tomography station of the Helmholtz Center Hereon at the Deutsches-Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg revealed, among other things, a net-like pattern of fine ridges covering the entire upper body surface, as well as complex mouthparts bearing multiple appendages.
“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.
Dr. Christian Bartel
SNSB – Naturkundemuseum Bamberg
Fleischstraße 2, 96047 Bamberg,
Phone: +49 (0)951 – 8631257
E-Mail: bartel@snsb.de
Bartel, C., Mitov, P. G., Dunlop, J. A. & Hammel, J. U. 2026. 3D analyses of the first ortholasmatine harvestmen from European Eocene ambers. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 71, 95-107.
doi:10.4202/app.01283.2025 https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app012832025.html
https://www.snsb.de - Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns (SNSB)
https://www.naturkundemuseum-bamberg.de - Naturkundemuseum Bamberg (SNSB-NKMB)
Reconstruction of Balticolasma wunderlichi
Source: Joschua Knüppe
Balticolasma wunderlichi (female) from Ukrainian Rovno amber.
Source: Jonas Damzen
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