Fossil Record 24(1): 19-32, doi: 10.5194/fr-24-19-2021
The first described turtle beetles from Eocene Baltic amber, with notes on fossil Chelonariidae (Coleoptera: Byrrhoidea)
expand article infoVitalii I. Alekseev‡, Jerit Mitchell§, Ryan C. McKellar|, Mauricio Barbi§, Hans C. E. Larsson, Andris Bukejs#
‡ Institute of Life Sciences, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Nevskogo street 14, Kaliningrad 236016, Russia§ Physics Department, University of Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada| Biology Department, University of Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada¶ Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 0C4, Canada# Daugavpils University, Daugavpils, Latvia
© Vitalii I. Alekseev, Jerit Mitchell, Ryan C. McKellar, Mauricio Barbi, Hans C. E. Larsson, Andris Bukejs.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Alekseev VI, Mitchell J, McKellar RC, Barbi M, Larsson HCE, Bukejs A (2021) The first described turtle beetles from Eocene Baltic amber, with notes on fossil Chelonariidae (Coleoptera: Byrrhoidea). Fossil Record 24(1): 19-32. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-19-2021
Open Access
Abstract

Chelonariidae, or turtle beetles, are rarely represented in thefossil record. Two new extinct species of this thermophilous coleopteranfamily, Chelonarium andabata Alekseev and Bukejs sp. nov. and Ch. dingansich Alekseev and Bukejs sp. nov., are described and illustrated from Eocene Baltic amber usingX-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). They are the first formallydescribed species of turtle beetles from Eocene Baltic amber and the firstknown European representatives of this family. Based on modern habitats ofthe group, the presence of the plants with which their larvae are associated(epiphytic orchids) is proposed in the Eocene amber forest. The EoceneFlorissant Formation fossil Chelonarium montanum Wickham, 1914, which was originally placed withinChelonariidae, is discussed based on its original description, and placementas incertae sedis within Byrrhoidea is proposed for this compression fossil(http://zoobank.org/References/C2EE164D-59DD-42FE-937D-B01C78DCD228, last access: 8 February 2021).