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Arthropods in amber from the Triassic Period
- Source :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (2012): 14796–14801. doi:10.1073/pnas.1208464109, info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Schmidt A. [1]; Jancke S. [2]; Lindquist E. [3]; Ragazzi E. [4]; Roghi G. [5]; Nascimbene P. [6]; Schmidt K. [7]; Wappler T. [8]; Grimaldi D. [6]/titolo:Arthropods in amber from the Triassic Period/doi:10.1073%2Fpnas.1208464109/rivista:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America/anno:2012/pagina_da:14796/pagina_a:14801/intervallo_pagine:14796–14801/volume:109
- Publication Year :
- 2012
- Publisher :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012.
-
Abstract
- The occurrence of arthropods in amber exclusively from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic is widely regarded to be a result of the production and preservation of large amounts of tree resin beginning ca. 130 million years (Ma) ago. Abundant 230 million-year-old amber from the Late Triassic (Carnian) of northeastern Italy has previously yielded myriad microorganisms, but we report here that it also preserves arthropods some 100 Ma older than the earliest prior records in amber. The Triassic specimens are a nematoceran fly (Diptera) and two disparate species of mites, Triasacarus fedelei gen. et sp. nov., and Ampezzoa triassica gen. et sp. nov. These mites are the oldest definitive fossils of a group, the Eriophyoidea, which includes the gall mites and comprises at least 3,500 Recent species, 97% of which feed on angiosperms and represents one of the most specialized lineages of phytophagous arthropods. Antiquity of the gall mites in much their extant form was unexpected, particularly with the Triassic species already having many of their present-day features (such as only two pairs of legs); further, it establishes conifer feeding as an ancestral trait. Feeding by the fossil mites may have contributed to the formation of the amber droplets, but we find that the abundance of amber during the Carnian ( ca. 230 Ma) is globally anomalous for the pre-Cretaceous and may, alternatively, be related to paleoclimate. Further recovery of arthropods in Carnian-aged amber is promising and will have profound implications for understanding the evolution of terrestrial members of the most diverse phylum of organisms.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
010506 paleontology
Ampezzoa
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Abundance (ecology)
anthropods
Eriophyoidea
evolution
Animals
Gall
Arthropods
Acari
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
triassic
Mites
Multidisciplinary
biology
Fossils
Phylum
Ecology
Diptera
paleoclimatology
Amber
plant resins
Paleontology
15. Life on land
biology.organism_classification
carnian pluvial event
Cretaceous
Italy
Physical Sciences
Period (geology)
Cenozoic
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10916490 and 00278424
- Volume :
- 109
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....bd40f29b6cabab70c3130cdc65893fb3