Carmen Soriano

Thrips pollination of Mesozoic gymnosperms

Within modern gymnosperms, conifers and Ginkgo are exclusively wind pollinated whereas many gnetaleans and cycads are insect pollinated. For cycads, thrips are specialized pollinators. We report such a specialized pollination mode from Early Cretaceous amber of Spain, wherein four female thrips representing a genus and two species in the family Melanthripidae were covered by abundant Cycadopites pollen grains. These females bear unique ring setae interpreted as specialized structures for pollen grain collection, functionally equivalent to the hook-tipped sensilla and plumose setae on the bodies of bees. The most parsimonious explanation for this structure is parental food provisioning for larvae, indicating subsociality. This association provides direct evidence of specialized collection and transportation of pollen grains and likely gymnosperm pollination by 110–105 million years ago, possibly considerably earlier.

Remarkable Stasis in a Phloeocharine Rove Beetle from the Late Cretaceous of New Jersey (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae)

The first definitive fossil species of the rove beetle (Staphylinidae) subfamily Phloeocharinae is described and figured from a single individual preserved in Late Cretaceous (Turonian) amber from New Jersey. The species is representative of the extant genus Phloeocharis Mannerheim and is described as Phloeocharis agerata Chatzimanolis, Newton, and Engel, new species. The specimen was imaged using traditional light microscopy as well as synchrotron propagation phase contrast microtomography, permitting a detailed examination of otherwise difficult to observe features. Examination revealed remarkable homogeneity across many characters with those of extant relatives, highlighting considerable morphological stasis in the genus over the last 90 million years.

The ‘Tully monster’ is a vertebrate

Problematic fossils, extinct taxa of enigmatic morphology that cannot be assigned to a known major group, were once a major issue in palaeontology. A long-favoured solution to the ‘problem of the problematica’, particularly the ‘weird wonders’ of the Cambrian Burgess Shale, was to consider them representatives of extinct phyla. A combination of new evidence and modern approaches to phylogenetic analysis has now resolved the affinities of most of these forms. Perhaps the most notable exception is Tullimonstrum gregarium, popularly known as the Tully monster, a large soft-bodied organism from the late Carboniferous Mazon Creek biota (approximately 309–307 million years ago) of Illinois, USA, which was designated the official state fossil of Illinois in 1989. Its phylogenetic position has remained uncertain and it has been compared with nemerteans, polychaetes, gastropods, conodonts, and the stem arthropod Opabinia. Here we review the morphology of Tullimonstrum based on an analysis of more than 1,200 specimens. We find that the anterior proboscis ends in a buccal apparatus containing teeth, the eyes project laterally on a long rigid bar, and the elongate segmented body bears a caudal fin with dorsal and ventral lobes. We describe new evidence for a notochord, cartilaginous arcualia, gill pouches, articulations within the proboscis, and multiple tooth rows adjacent to the mouth. This combination of characters, supported by phylogenetic analysis, identifies Tullimonstrum as a vertebrate, and places it on the stem lineage to lampreys (Petromyzontida). In addition to increasing the known morphological disparity of extinct lampreys, a chordate affinity for T. gregarium resolves the nature of a soft-bodied fossil which has been debated for more than 50 years.

Fossil water striders in Cretaceous French amber (Heteroptera: Gerromorpha: Mesoveliidae and Veliidae)

Fossil gerromorphan bugs from the Cretaceous (Albian–Cenomanian boundary) amber of Charentes, SW France, are reviewed. A larva described by Perrichot et al. (2005) as incertae familiae within the Gerromorpha is now placed in the Mesoveliidae. Three new genera and species are also described and illustrated: Emilianovelia audax Solórzano Kraemer & Perrichot, gen. et sp.n., and Malenavelia videris Solórzano Kraemer & Perrichot, gen. et sp.n., which are placed in the Mesoveliidae: Mesoveliinae; and Arcantivelia petraudi Solórzano Kraemer & Perrichot, gen. et sp.n., which is the first Mesozoic member of the Veliinae. The relationships between these fossils and their palaeoecology are discussed. The new discoveries confirm the antiquity of the semi‐aquatic gerromorphans, particularly the clade (Veliidae + Gerridae). The habitat is described as aquatic and likely marine‐influenced, yet adaptation to a fully marine habitat in these gerromorphans remains difficult to establish.

A New Lineage of Enigmatic Diaprioid Wasps in Cretaceous Amber (Hymenoptera: Diaprioidea)

ABSTRACT A new family of microhymenopteran wasps is described and figured from three new species discovered in Cretaceous amber of Spain (Albian) and New Jersey (Turonian). Spathiopterygidae Engel and Ortega-Blanco, new family, is allied to the Diapriidae and Maamingidae (Proctotrupomorpha: Diaprioidea), sharing with these families putatively derived features relative to Monomachidae. The family contains three genera and three species, all new: Spathiopteryx alavarommopsis Engel and Ortega-Blanco, new genus and species, and Myamaropsis turolensis Engel and Ortega-Blanco, new genus and species, both from the Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Spain, and Spathopria sayrevillensis Engel, Ortega-Blanco, and Grimaldi, new genus and species, from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) of New Jersey. Spathopria sayrevillensis is reconstructed using x-ray synchrotron microtomography In addition, a peculiar new genus and species, Iberopria perialla Engel, Ortega-Blanco, and Delclòs, of stem-group Diapriidae is described from Spanish amber. The distinctive features and character combinations of these taxa are discussed in connection with possible relationships to the surviving lineages of diaprioids.

First fossil record of polypore fungus beetles from Lower Cretaceous amber of France

The first fossil genus and species of Tetratomidae (Coleoptera) is described, from the Lower Cretaceous amber deposits of France. The new genus represents the first insect to be recognized inside an opaque piece of amber, through the use of propagation phase contrast X-ray microtomography using synchrotron radiation. This new finding proves the capabilities of this imaging technique in amber inclusions, as well as increases the knowledge of fossil tenebrionoids, a group scarcely recognized in the Cretaceous fossil record.

A new species of the Cretaceous genus Prioriphora (Diptera: Phoridae) in French amber

Prioriphora is an extinct genus of phorid flies that has been described from the Upper Cretaceous amber of Canada, Siberia and the U.S.A. Here, we present the first record of this genus in amber from south‐western France, with a description of Prioriphora schroederhohenwarthi Solórzano Kraemer & Perrichot sp.n. The holotype and two paratypes were studied using traditional light microscopy and propagation phase‐contrast X‐ray synchrotron microtomography (PPC‐SRµCT), rendering high‐resolution three‐dimensional models for critical examination. A key to the nine species of Prioriphora is provided, and the diversity and ecology of the prioriphorine grade during the Cretaceous is briefly discussed.