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Issue: Vol. 7 No. 3: June 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-06-29
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.3.8
Page range: 386-394
Abstract views: 96
PDF downloaded: 73

Gomphocopris ashworthi gen. et sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Scarabaeinae, Homocoprini): An additional new Chilean fossil genus and species extinct at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary

Laboratorio de Salud de Bosques, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile, 5090000 Valdivia, Chile; Fundación para los Estudios Patrimoniales Pleistocenos de Osorno, Osorno, Chile
Beaty Centre for Species Discovery, Canadian Museum of Nature, 1740 Chemin Pink, Gatineau, Quebec, J9J 3N7, Canada
Fundación para los Estudios Patrimoniales Pleistocenos de Osorno, Osorno, Chile
Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUO-MUS), University of Helsinki, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, Helsinki, 00014, Finland
Research Institute CIBIO (Centro Iberoamericano de la Biodiversidad) Science Park, University of Alicante, E-03690 Alicante, Spain
Dung beetles Extinction Taxonomy Quaternary insect Palaeoentomology Coleoptera Scarabaeinae Homocoprini

Abstract

Based on male and female fossil beetle remains recorded in the Pilauco deposits (northern Chilean Patagonia), a new and extinct dung beetle genus and species from an upper Pleistocene sequence (16.4 to 12.8 kyr BP) namely, Gomphocopris ashworthi gen. et sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Homocoprini) is described and illustrated. The morphological analysis of these fossil remains suggest that this extinct genus and species are placed into the tribe Homocoprini due to presence of supplementary carina in the lateral area in the pronotum. Moreover, this new taxon is separated from the extant Homocoprini species by the absence hypomeral carina (well developed in all extant species); cephalic horn in males with a distinct posterior projection apically (absent in the extant species), and the unique shapes and disposition of the pronotal lobes in major male and female. We suggest that this dung beetle genus and species became extinct in the late Pleistocene to early Holocene as a consequence of the drastic environmental changes, and the extinction of most of the large mammals, which were the organisms that provided feces for the development of their larvae.

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