page_title: Mite
section_title: Fossil record
hierarchical_section_title: Mite / Evolution and taxonomy / Fossil record
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Milbe cf. Glaesacarus rhombeus ( = Acarus rhombeus, Koch &amp; Berendt, 1854) in Baltischem Bernstein (Obereozän) Bildbreite ca. 1,5 mm, Datei 636b English: fossil mite cf Glaesacarus rhombeus in Baltic amber.
context_page_description: Mites are small arthropods belonging to the class Arachnida and the subclass Acari. Mites are not a clade as they span two different groups of arachnids: the Acariformes are sister to the camel spiders, while the Parasitiformes are sister to the false scorpions; also, they exclude the ticks, order Ixodida, although ticks and mites are closely related. Mites are distantly related to spiders and scorpions.
  The body is in two sections, the cephalothorax or prosoma, and an opisthosoma. The scientific discipline devoted to the study of ticks and mites is called acarology.
  Most mites are tiny, less than 1 mm in length, and have a simple, unsegmented body plan. Their small size makes them easily overlooked; some species live in water, many live in soil as decomposers, others live on plants, sometimes creating galls, while others again are predators or parasites. This last type includes the commercially important Varroa parasite of honey bees, as well as the scabies mite of humans. Most species are harmless to humans but a few are associated with allergies or may transmit diseases.
context_section_description: Most fossil acarids are no older than the Tertiary (up to 65 mya). Earlier fossils are too few to enable mite phylogeny to be reconstructed from palaeontological evidence, but in 2002 an oribatid mite (Brachypylina) from the Early Ordovician (c. 480 mya) was found in Oland, Sweden. The first find of Parasitiformes from the Mesozoic was of an argasid tick larva in Cretaceous amber (90–94 mya) from New Jersey. Other fossils including the first opilioacariform mite are preserved in Baltic amber of Eocene age (44 mya).
caption: Mite, cf Glaesacarus rhombeus, fossilised in Baltic amber, Upper Eocene
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