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Issue: Vol. 1 No. 3: September 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-09-26
DOI: 10.11646/mesozoic.1.3.10
Page range: 298-308
Abstract views: 385
PDF downloaded: 99

Cretabaltoraea volsella gen. et sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) from Cretaceous Kachin amber and its relationship with Eocene Baltoraea (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae)

Institut Botànic de Barcelona (CSIC-CMCNB), 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Department of Entomology, National Museum, 14800 Prague, Czech Republic
Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “C. Darwin”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434025 Hubei, China
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008 Nanjing, China
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008 Nanjing, China
Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology, Section Paleontology, University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany
HeiKa Graduate School on “Functional Materials”, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany; Centre for Organismal Studies, Universität Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “C. Darwin”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Coleoptera Nitidulidae Burmese amber evolution fossil Myanmar Pinaceae pollination

Abstract

Here we describe Cretabaltoraea volsella Peris, Jelínek & Audisio gen. et sp. nov. of the family Nitidulidae (Coleoptera). As implied by its generic name, the new species is described after a fossil specimen preserved in the Upper Cretaceous Kachin amber from northern Myanmar. This new species is rather similar to the two fossil nitidulid species of Baltoraea Kurochkin & Kirejtshuk, 2010, previously described from the Eocene Baltic amber. The comparison between this group of fossils and the study of Baltoraea simillima Kurochkin & Kirejtshuk, 2010 using CT-scanning suggest that Cretabaltoraea volsella gen. et sp. nov. and the two Baltoraea species should be placed in the extinct Apophisandrinae, a basal subfamily of Nitidulidae which until now only includes a group of Cretaceous fossils from the Kachin amber, described as ancient pollinators of both gymnosperms and basal angiosperms.

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