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Issue: Vol. 5 No. 3: June 2022
Type: Article
Published: 2022-06-23
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.5.3.5
Page range: 233–239
Abstract views: 615
PDF downloaded: 19

An enigmatic Tettigoniidea from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Bqaatouta, Lebanon (Orthoptera, Ensifera)

State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Center for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Lebanese University, Faculty of Science II, Natural Sciences Department, PO Box 26110217, Fanar, El-Matn, Lebanon; Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB) Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, Université des Antilles, CP50, 57 rue Cuvier 75005 Paris, France
Conde de Torrecedeira 36, 5C Vigo, Pontevedra 36202, Spain
Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB) Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, Université des Antilles, CP50, 57 rue Cuvier 75005 Paris, France
Orthoptera Ensifera Insecta Mesozoic dating evolution of hearing

Abstract

Aenigmaraphidophora mouniri gen. et sp. nov., an enigmatic representative of the ensiferan infraorder Tettigoniidea, is described and figured from the Lower Cretaceous of Lebanon, based on a nearly complete male specimen. The new fossil could fit in either in the stem group of the Rhaphidophoridae or in the Tettigoniidae. In either cases, the discovery is congruent with the current hypotheses on the dating of these families. We discuss on the consequence of the presence of an external fore tibial tympan in the new fossil, while absent in the extant Rhaphidophoridae.

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