631 GEODIVERSITAS • 2004 • 26 (4) © Publications Scientifiques du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. www.geodiversitas.com The oldest records of Polyxenida (Myriapoda, Diplopoda): new discoveries from the Cretaceous ambers of Lebanon and France Monique NGUYEN DUY-JACQUEMIN Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Département Systématique et Évolution, USM 602 - Section Arthropodes, CP 53, 61 rue Buffon, F-75231 Paris cedex 05 (France) monguyen@mnhn.fr Dany AZAR Lebanese University, Faculty of Science II, Biology Department, BP 26110217 Fanar-Matn (Lebanon) and Biology Department, Saint-Joseph University, Campus of Sciences and Technology, Mar Roukos (Mkalles), BP 11-1514 Beirut (Lebanon) azar@mnhn.fr Nguyen Duy-Jacquemin M. & Azar D. 2004. — The oldest records of Polyxenida (Myriapoda, Diplopoda): new discoveries from the Cretaceous ambers of Lebanon and France. Geodiversitas 26 (4) : 631-641. ABSTRACT Electroxenus jezzinensis n. gen., n. sp. and Libanoxenus hammanaensis n. gen., n. sp. are described from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Lebanon. These are the oldest known records of Penicillata because Phryssonotus burmiticus (Cockerell, 1917), from Burmese amber, is dated as being from upper Albian. They belong to the family Polyxenidae. This family contains the recent genus Polyxenus Latreille, 1803, which is known from Eocene Baltic amber. Electroxenus n. gen. and Libanoxenus n. gen. are very close to the recent genera of Polyxenidae. The first French fossil Penicillata, discovered in the Cretaceous amber of Haute-Provence, is also described and referred to the genus Phryssonotus Scudder, 1885 (sole genus of the family Synxenidae). The recent polyxenid families Polyxenidae and Synxenidae therefore already existed during the Cretaceous. KEY WORDS Myriapoda, Diplopoda, Penicillata, Polyxenidae, Synxenidae, Early and Late Cretaceous, fossil, amber, Electroxenus jezzinensis n. gen., n. sp., Libanoxenus hammanaensis n. gen., n. sp., Phryssonotus, new genera, new species.