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01 April 2026 Pincer movement: fossil pushes origins of chelicerate arthropods back to the Cambrian period Spiders and scorpions belong to a group called chelicerates, which are arthropods with pincers at the front of their head. Fossil evidence reveals how this group evolved. By James C. Lamsdell ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1045-9574 0 James C. Lamsdell James C. Lamsdell is in the Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26505, USA. View author publications PubMed Google Scholar
In Greek mythology, when the huntsman Orion boasted that he would kill every beast on Earth, the goddess Gaia sent a giant scorpion to slay him. That ancient tale of an encounter with an arthropod from the chelicerate lineage — acting as an assassin to punish an innocent (if insufferable) man — unfortunately seems to have fed into the public’s often negative perception of this remarkable arthropod group. To this day, chelicerates, which include terrestrial arachnids such as scorpions, spiders and ticks (Ixodida), as well as aquatic horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) and sea spiders (pycnogonids), are generally treated with either fear or macabre fascination. Writing in Nature, Lerosey-Aubril and Ortega-Hernández1 present fossil evidence that offers a glimpse back in time to when chelicerates first evolved.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00807-2
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Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.
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