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Type: Correspondence
Published: 2019-05-30
Page range: 447–450
Abstract views: 82
PDF downloaded: 39

The first Ichneumonid fossil from the Early Pleistocene of Madeira Island (Portugal)

Departamento de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa and Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL), Laboratório Associado, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal Madeira Botanical Group (GBM), Faculdade de Ciências da Vida, Universidade da Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal
Madeira Botanical Group (GBM), Faculdade de Ciências da Vida, Universidade da Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores, 9501-81 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Madeira Botanical Group (GBM), Faculdade de Ciências da Vida, Universidade da Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal, Portugal CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores, 9501-81 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Departamento de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa and Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL), Laboratório Associado, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Hymenoptera

Abstract

In oceanic islands, well age-constrained deposits containing arthropod somatofossils (body fossils) are rare. However, when available, these are important for providing empirical and independent minimum ages for molecular phylogenetic dating and complementary data on taxonomy, evolution and palaeobiogeography information of the biological groups found as fossils. This is especially important for taxa that speciated within oceanic islands, many becoming single island endemics (SIE). Recently, associated with a 1.3 Ma (Calabrian) fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary deposit from Porto da Cruz in Madeira Island (Fig. 1), a wing, putatively identified as Hymenoptera, was found. Here we describe this wing fossil as belonging to Ichneumonidae, a group with ca. 30% of SIE in Madeira Island. Moreover, this is the first somatofossil of ichneumonid parasitic wasps found in Madeira Island and in Macaronesian islands (i.e. Azores, Madeira, Canaries and Cabo Verde).

 

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