Latest Articles from Fossil Record Latest 5 Articles from Fossil Record https://fr.pensoft.net/ Fri, 29 Mar 2024 09:44:33 +0200 Pensoft FeedCreator https://fr.pensoft.net/i/logo.jpg Latest Articles from Fossil Record https://fr.pensoft.net/ Coexistence of Oligocene toothed and baleen-assisted mysticetes in the northwestern Pacific https://fr.pensoft.net/article/111567/ Fossil Record 27(1): 95-100

DOI: 10.3897/fr.27.e111567

Authors: Cheng-Hsiu Tsai, Toshiyuki Kimura, Yoshikazu Hasegawa

Abstract: Oligocene mysticetes display an unparalleled diversity and morphological disparity in the evolutionary history of Mysticeti. However, their paleoecological aspects, such as the patterns of coexistence of different morphotypes, remain poorly explored. Here we describe an aetiocetid (toothed mysticete) from the Jinnobaru Formation (lower upper Oligocene, about 28 million years ago) of Umashima Island, Kitakyushu, Japan. Our description of a toothed mysticete from the Oligocene of Umashima exemplifies the coexistence of toothed and baleen-assisted mysticetes in the northwestern Pacific. Hopefully, new finds of Oligocene mysticetes will lead to a well-sampled dataset for analyzing this and other related paleoecological traits to understand the demise of “archaic” Oligocene mysticetes and the subsequent rise of the modern-looking baleen-bearing whales in Miocene times.

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Research Article Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:51:40 +0200
First flower inclusion and fossil evidence of Cryptocarya (Laurales, Lauraceae) from Miocene amber of Zhangpu (China) https://fr.pensoft.net/article/109621/ Fossil Record 27(1): 1-11

DOI: 10.3897/fr.27.109621

Authors: Simon Beurel, Julien B. Bachelier, Jérôme Munzinger, Fuchen Shao, Jörg U. Hammel, Gongle Shi, Eva-Maria Sadowski

Abstract: Lauraceae have one of the oldest fossil records of angiosperms with the earliest known evidence from the mid-Cretaceous. However, most of these records are based on leaves, especially from the Cenozoic of Asia, which are often challenging to assign to extinct or extant genera or species. In contrast, fossils of reproductive organs are more informative, but remain scarce. We here described the first Cenozoic Lauraceae flower of Asia and confirmed the presence of Cryptocarya in the Miocene Zhangpu flora (Fujian Province, south-eastern China) based on an amber inclusion. We scanned the specimen using synchrotron radiation-based micro-computed tomography (SRμCT) and then compared the fossil with extant flowers of the genus. The present fossil flower is small, bisexual, and polysymmetric, with a whorled and trimerous perianth and androecium along with a hypanthium around the gynoecium. The perianth comprises six undifferentiated tepals, the androecium consists of nine stamens and three innermost staminodes, and the gynoecium of a single carpel with a superior, unilocular (and uniovulate) ovary. Our study also shows that the fossil shares an unusual position of the typical staminal glands and a short androecial tube on the rim of the hypanthium with at least one extant Australian species of Cryptocarya, which have not been reported before. Nowadays, Lauraceae are still present in tropical to subtropical regions, mostly in American and Asian rainforests. The discovery of many Lauraceae leaf fossils in Zhangpu, as well as the amber flower of this study, is consistent with the current reconstruction of the amber source environment as a megathermal seasonal rainforest during the Mid-Miocene.

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Research Article Thu, 4 Jan 2024 11:35:52 +0200
A new remarkable cimicoid genus and species (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Cimicomorpha) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, with implications for its aberrant male genitalia https://fr.pensoft.net/article/86784/ Fossil Record 26(1): 27-38

DOI: 10.3897/fr.26.e86784

Authors: Kazutaka Yamada, Shûhei Yamamoto, Yui Takahashi

Abstract: A new genus and species of cimicoid true bug, Ecpaglocoris ditomeus Yamada & Yamamoto, gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated from mid-Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Albian) amber in the Kachin State of northern Myanmar (Burma). This new fossil genus and species is reminiscent of members of Anthocoridae by the strongly flattened and elongated body, four-segmented labium, distinct costal fracture and presence of fossula spongiosa on fore tibiae, but should not be ascribed to this family. The new taxon cannot be placed in any extant cimicoid families, based upon hemelytral, male genital and other morphological structures. Based on the hemelytral membrane venation and presence of dorsal laterotergites on abdominal segments I to VIII, it can be assumed that this new genus belongs to the extinct family Vetanthocoridae. Ecpaglocoris ditomeus gen. et sp. nov. has aberrant male genitalia characterised by sickle-shaped left and right parameres and grooves running throughout the paramere. This characteristic indicates that traumatic insemination occurred in this genus. The peculiar combination of male genital characteristics seen in Ecpaglocoris gen. nov. prevents its placement in any of the extant cimicoid families.

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Research Article Fri, 13 Jan 2023 17:12:53 +0200
A case of frozen behaviour: A flat wasp female with a beetle larva in its grasp in 100-million-year-old amber https://fr.pensoft.net/article/82469/ Fossil Record 25(2): 287-305

DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.82469

Authors: Christine Kiesmüller, Joachim T. Haug, Patrick Müller, Marie K. Hörnig

Abstract: Parasitism, a malignant form of symbiosis, wherein one partner, the parasite, derives benefits to the detriment of another, the host, is a widespread phenomenon. Parasitism sensu lato is understood here to include many phenomena, like parasitoidism, kleptoparasitism, phoresy and obligate parasitism. Insecta has many in-groups that have evolved a parasitic life-style; one of the largest in-groups of these is probably the group of Hymenoptera. Bethylidae, the group of flat wasps, is a smaller in-group of Aculeata, the group of hymenopterans with venom stings; representatives of Bethylidae are parasitic. They are more specifically larval ectoparasitoids, meaning that their immature stages are externally developing parasites that kill their host organism at pupation (end of interaction). They mostly parasitise immature representatives of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. Female flat wasps search for a host for their progeny, paralyse it with their venom sting and then oviposit onto it. Herein we describe one of the oldest findings of parasitic interactions of parasitoid wasps with their progenies’ hosts, specifically a flat wasp female grasping and (potentially) stinging a beetle immature in Cretaceous Kachin (Myanmar) amber (ca. 100 million years old). This finding indicates that this type of parasitic interaction existed since the Cretaceous, temporally close to the earliest findings of representatives of Bethylidae.

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Research Article Fri, 16 Sep 2022 16:32:36 +0300
Fossil assemblage from the Khok Pha Suam locality of northeastern, Thailand: an overview of vertebrate diversity from the Early Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation (Aptian-Albian) https://fr.pensoft.net/article/83081/ Fossil Record 25(1): 83-98

DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.83081

Authors: Sita Manitkoon, Uthumporn Deesri, Komsorn Lauprasert, Prapasiri Warapeang, Thanit Nonsrirach, Apirut Nilpanapan, Kamonlak Wongko, Phornphen Chanthasit

Abstract: The Khok Pha Suam locality in the province of Ubon Ratchathani, northeastern, Thailand, is known as “the last home of Thai dinosaurs”, because it belongs to the Lower Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation (Aptian-Albian) which is currently the youngest Mesozoic vertebrate fossil producing formation in the Khorat Group. Here, we describe a diverse vertebrate assemblage, including hybodonts, ray-finned fishes, turtles, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs from the Khok Pha Suam locality. The updated data on the Khok Kruat fauna provides a better understanding of the variety and distribution of Early Cretaceous continental ecosystems, which are useful for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. In addition to consolidating unincorporated data on fauna, this study also provides the palaeontological data necessary to illustrate the palaeoecosystem to the general public, as well as improving the academic value of the Pha Chan-Sam Phan Bok Geopark.

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Research Article Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:08:47 +0200