Fig 10. Time-scale tree that shows taxa into the family Buthidae with fossils since the Paleogene (Cenozoic) and extinct close relatives in the Mesozoic, according to the current fossil record.

The extinct family Protobuthidae is here considered as a basal lineage outside the superfamily Buthoidea after Baptista et al. (2003) [8], and Microcharmus [51] is considered part of Buthidae (= Microcharmidae) after Volschenk et al. (2008) [52]. Note that the Copal taxa: Palaeogrosphus copalensis, Palaeogrosphus jacquesi, Microcharmus henderickxi, within the genera Palaeogrosphus and Microcharmus (Buthidae) [2][51][53][54], respectively, are now placed outside the geological record due to their recent depositional age.