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Issue: Vol. 6 No. 5: October 2023
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2023-10-30
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.6.5.4
Page range: 455–458
Abstract views: 213
PDF downloaded: 145

An unusual artematopodid beetle from Early Cretaceous Wealden amber (Coleoptera: Elateroidea: Artematopodidae)

School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Centre for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Centre for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Lebanese University, Faculty of Science II, Natural Sciences Department, Fanar - El-Matn, PO Box 26110217, Lebanon
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Centre for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Centre for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Coleoptera Elateroidea Artematopodidae

Abstract

Early Cretaceous Wealden amber of the Isle of Wight (early Barremian, ~125 Ma) represents one of the oldest known fossiliferous ambers. Here we describe the first fossil beetle from the deposit, and first British coleopteran amber inclusion, the artematopodid Valdopogon simpsoni gen. et sp. nov. Despite its fragmentary nature, the fossil possesses a puzzling combination of characters unseen in modern Artematopodidae, namely equally long abdominal ventrites I and II, concave sutures between ventrites I–V, and absence of elytral striation. Valdopogon contributes to our understanding of the morphological evolution of this once diverse group of elateroid beetles.

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