Anochetus exstinctus is known from three solitary fossil insects, which are inclusions in yellow transparent chunks of Dominican amber.[2] The amber was produced by the extinct Hymenaea protera, which formerly grew on Hispaniola, across northern South America and up to southern Mexico. The specimens were collected from an undetermined amber mine in fossil-bearing rocks of the Cordillera Septentrional mountains, northern Dominican Republic.[1][4] The amber dates from at least the Burdigalian stage of the Miocene, based on studying the associated fossil foraminifera, and may be as old as the Middle Eocene, based on the associated fossil coccoliths. This age range is due to the host rock being secondary deposits for the amber, and the Miocene age range is only the youngest that it might be.[1]
At the time of description, the holotype specimen, number D-5479, and the paratype, number D-3734, were preserved in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart amber collections. A third fossil was identified from a photograph as most likely belonging to the species but unavailable for study. The holotype and paratype fossils were first studied by entomologist Maria L. De Andrade of the University of Basle, with her 1994 type description of the new species being published in the journal Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). The specific epithet is derived from the Latin exstinctus, which means "extinct".[2]
The species is one of eight Anochetus species which have been described from Dominican amber. Two species were described prior to A. exstinctus, A. corayi in 1980 and A. brevidentatus in 1991. The remaining five species, A. ambiguus, A. conisquamis, A. dubius, A. intermedius, and A. lucidus, were all described by De Andrade in the same 1994 paper as A. exstinctus.[2] A number of modern species live in the Greater Antilles, with at least three modern species found on Hispaniola.[3]
