A diverse new assemblage of green lacewings (Insecta, Neuroptera, Chrysopidae) from the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands, western North America

2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir N. Makarkin ◽  
S. Bruce Archibald

The early Eocene green lacewings (Neuroptera, Chrysopidae) of the Okanagan Highlands deposits of McAbee, and Driftwood Canyon, British Columbia (Canada) and Republic, Washington (U.S.A.) are treated in detail for the first time. At least six genera are present, one unnamed, three new, with at least 10 new species, six named:Protochrysa fuscobasalisn. sp. (McAbee) (Limaiinae, the youngest known record of the subfamily),Okanaganochrysa coltsunaen. gen. n. sp. (McAbee),Adamsochrysa asperan. gen. n. sp. (McAbee),A. wilsonin. gen. n. sp. (Republic),Archaeochrysa profractan. sp. (McAbee), andPseudochrysopa harveyin. gen. n. sp. (Driftwood Canyon) (all Nothochrysinae, the latter provisionally). The four unnamed species include one assigned toPseudochrysopa, two likely belonging toAdamsochrysa, and one of an unknown nothochrysine genus. Microtholi are detected on the abdominal sclerites ofAdamsochrysa wilsoni, and the spermatheca and spermathecal duct in the abdomen ofPseudochrysopa harveyi, the first reported occurrences of these preserved in fossil Chrysopidae. Structures were detected on the apical wing margins of some species that appear similar to trichosors, which are unknown in Chrysopidae, but are present in some other neuropteran families. This is the richest described assemblage of the family anywhere in the fossil record. Okanagan chrysopids were also morphologically and presumably ecologically diverse, including large species with rich venation and well as those with simplified venation and the smallest known fossil species. This is the oldest reported occurrence of the family in North America.

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 803-813
Author(s):  
Gerald Mayr ◽  
S. Bruce Archibald ◽  
Gary W. Kaiser ◽  
Rolf W. Mathewes

We survey the known avian fossils from Ypresian (early Eocene) fossil sites of the North American Okanagan Highlands, mainly in British Columbia (Canada). All specimens represent taxa that were previously unknown from the Eocene of far-western North America. Wings from the McAbee site are tentatively referred to the Gaviiformes and would constitute the earliest fossil record of this group of birds. A postcranial skeleton from Driftwood Canyon is tentatively assigned to the Songziidae, a taxon originally established for fossils from the Ypresian of China. Two skeletons from Driftwood Canyon and the McAbee site are tentatively referred to Coliiformes and Zygodactylidae, respectively, whereas three further fossils from McAbee, Blakeburn, and Republic (Washington, USA) are too poorly preserved for even a tentative assignment. The specimens from the Okanagan Highlands inhabited relatively high paleoaltitudes with microthermal climates (except Quilchena: lower mesothermal) and mild winters, whereas most other Ypresian fossil birds are from much warmer lowland paleoenvironments with upper mesothermal to megathermal climates. The putative occurrence of a gaviiform bird is particularly noteworthy because diving birds are unknown from other lacustrine Ypresian fossil sites of the Northern Hemisphere. The bones of the putative zygodactylid show a sulphurous colouration, and we hypothesize that this highly unusual preservation may be due to the metabolic activity of sulphide-oxidizing bacteria.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4951 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-79
Author(s):  
S. BRUCE ARCHIBALD ◽  
VLADIMIR N. MAKARKIN

Four new species of Raphidiidae are described from the early Eocene of western North America: Megaraphidia antiquissima sp. nov. from McAbee, M. ootsa sp. nov. from Driftwood Canyon, M. hopkinsi sp. nov. from the Allenby Formation (all from British Columbia, Canada), M. klondika sp. nov. from Republic (Washington, United States of America). Archiinocellia Handlirsch, 1910, Archiinocellia oligoneura Handlirsch, 1910 from Horsefly River (British Columbia, Canada), and A. protomaculata (Engel, 2011), comb. nov., from the Green River Formation (Colorado, United States of America) are redescribed. Archiinocellia is assigned to Raphidiidae, sit. nov. The apparent absence of sclerotized gonocoxites 9 in the Archiinocellia protomaculata male is probably plesiomorphic at the family level. As some modern snakeflies do not require a cold interval to complete their development and Eocene Inocelliidae and Raphidiidae lived in regions of warm winters (especially A. protomaculata), adaptation to cold winters in many modern snakeflies is a post-Eocene phenomenon. Eocene Raphidiidae of Europe (Priabonian) differ greatly from those of North America (Ypresian and Priabonian). This pattern might reflect dispersal in either direction or ranges established prior to continental separation. Eocene Inocelliidae of Europe (Priabonian), however, are more similar to those of North America (Ypresian and Lutetian). 


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4981 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-480
Author(s):  
ALEXEI V. CHERNYSHEV ◽  
JAMES L. GOEDERT

Continued sampling of the latest Eocene to earliest Oligocene Gries Ranch Formation in Lewis County, Washington State, has yielded new heterobranch microgastropod species. Orbitestella kieli sp. nov., is the third fossil species of this genus and family Orbitestellidae from western North America. Two new species of Ammonicera, A. rolani sp. nov. and A. danieli sp. nov., are together only the second fossil record of this genus and the family Omalogyridae from the northeastern Pacific Ocean. New specimens of two previously recorded species, O. palaiopacifica Squires & Goedert and A. benhami Squires & Goedert, from early Eocene rocks of the Crescent Formation provide new data regarding shell morphology. The fossil record of both Ammonicera and Orbitestella in western North America is restricted to early Eocene to earliest Oligocene age rocks in Washington State. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 150 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. B. Archibald ◽  
Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn ◽  
Denis J. Brothers ◽  
Rolf W. Mathewes

AbstractMost major modern families of Hymenoptera were established in the Mesozoic, but the diversifications within ecologically key trophic guilds and lineages that significantly influence the character of modern terrestrial ecosystems – bees (Apiformes), ants (Formicidae), social Vespidae, parasitoids (Ichneumonidae), and phytophagous Tenthredinoidea – were previously known to occur mostly in the middle to late Eocene. We find these changes earlier, seen here in the early Eocene Okanagan Highlands fossil deposits of western North America. Some of these may have occurred even earlier, but have been obscured by taphonomic processes. We provide an overview of the Okanagan Highlands Hymenoptera to family level and in some cases below that, with a minimum of 25 named families and at least 30 when those tentatively assigned or distinct at family level, but not named are included. Some are poorly known as fossils (Trigonalidae, Siricidae, Peradeniidae, Monomachidae), and some represent the oldest confirmed occurrences (Trigonalidae, Pompilidae, Sphecidaesensu stricto, Peradeniidae, Monomachidae, and possibly Halictidae). Some taxa previously thought to be relictual or extinct by the end of the Cretaceous (Angarosphecidae, Archaeoscoliinae, some Diapriidae) are present and sometimes abundant in the early Eocene. Living relatives of some taxa are now present in different climate regimes or on different continents.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4980 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
VLADIMIR N. MAKARKIN ◽  
S. BRUCE ARCHIBALD ◽  
ROLF W. MATHEWES

The osmylid subfamily Protosmylinae is revised based on our emended diagnosis: Petrushevskia Martynova, 1958 and Mesosmylidus Jepson et al., 2012 are excluded (both considered Osmylidae incertae sedis), and Sogjuta Martynova, 1958 is transferred to it from the Mesosmylininae. The late Eocene genus Protosmylus Krüger, 1913 is considered a junior synonym of Osmylidia Cockerell, 1908 based on a distinct apomorphy (deeply forked MA in the hind wing), syn. nov. Three new species of Osmylidia from the early Eocene of North America are described: O. donnae sp. nov. from Quilchena, O. glastrai sp. nov. from Republic, Washington, USA, and an unnamed species of Osmylidia is reported from Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park, British Columbia (all localities of the Okanagan Highlands series), and O. taliae sp. nov. from the Green River Formation of Colorado, USA. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4838 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
PRIYA AGNIHOTRI ◽  
KAJAL CHANDRA ◽  
ANUMEHA SHUKLA ◽  
HUKAM SINGH ◽  
RAKESH C. MEHROTRA

A fossil of a mayfly nymph that shows similarities with the modern genus Teloganella Ulmer, 1939 of the family Teloganellidae is recorded for the first time from the Indian subcontinent. It is systematically described from the Gurha lignite mine of Bikaner, Rajasthan which belongs to the Palana Formation (late Paleocene-early Eocene). As assignment of the fossil to a modern species of Teloganella is difficult due to indistinguishable location of gills in the impression, a new species, Teloganella gurhaensis Agnihotri et al., sp. nov. is instituted to include this fossil naiad resembling the extant Teloganella. 


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0248369
Author(s):  
Nathan A. Jud ◽  
Sarah E. Allen ◽  
Chris W. Nelson ◽  
Carolina L. Bastos ◽  
Joyce G. Chery

Paullinieae are a diverse group of tropical and subtropical climbing plants that belong to the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). The six genera in this tribe make up approximately one-quarter of the species in the family, but a sparse fossil record limits our understanding of their diversification. Here, we provide the first description of anatomically preserved fossils of Paullinieae and we re-evaluate other macrofossils that have been attributed to the tribe. We identified permineralized fossil roots in collections from the lower Miocene Cucaracha Formation where it was exposed along the Culebra Cut of the Panama Canal. We prepared the fossils using the cellulose acetate peel technique and compared the anatomy with that of extant Paullinieae. The fossil roots preserve a combination of characters found only in Paullinieae, including peripheral secondary vascular strands, vessel dimorphism, alternate intervessel pitting with coalescent apertures, heterocellular rays, and axial parenchyma strands of 2–4 cells, often with prismatic crystals. We also searched the paleontological literature for other occurrences of the tribe. We re-evaluated leaf fossils from western North America that have been assigned to extant genera in the tribe by comparing their morphology to herbarium specimens and cleared leaves. The fossil leaves that were assigned to Cardiospermum and Serjania from the Paleogene of western North America are likely Sapindaceae; however, they lack diagnostic characters necessary for inclusion in Paullinieae and should be excluded from those genera. Therefore, the fossils described here as Ampelorhiza heteroxylon gen. et sp. nov. are the oldest macrofossil evidence of Paullinieae. They provide direct evidence of the development of a vascular cambial variant associated with the climbing habit in Sapindaceae and provide strong evidence of the diversification of crown-group Paullinieae in the tropics by 18.5–19 million years ago.


2019 ◽  
Vol 151 (04) ◽  
pp. 521-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir N. Makarkin ◽  
S. Bruce Archibald ◽  
James E. Jepson

AbstractOne new genus of Inocelliidae (Raphidioptera) with one new species and one undetermined specimen is described from the Eocene of North America: Paraksenocellia borealis new genus, new species from the early Eocene (Ypresian) Okanagan Highlands shale at Driftwood Canyon, British Columbia, Canada (a forewing), and Paraksenocellia species from the middle Eocene (Lutetian) of the Coal Creek Member of the Kishenehn Formation, northwestern Montana, United States of America (a hind wing). These are the oldest records of the family. The new genus possesses many character states that are rare in Inocelliidae, e.g., a very long pterostigma extending to ScP in both the forewings and hind wings; the forewing subcostal space has three crossveins; the forewing and hind wing AA1 are deeply forked; the crossvein between CuA and CuP is located far distad the crossvein 1r-m. Paraksenocellia is confidently a member of the Inocelliidae, as it possesses a proximal shift of the basal crossvein 1r-m (connecting R and M) in the forewing and the loss of the basal crossvein 1r-m in the hind wing, both apomorphies of the family. It shares some character states with the Mesozoic Mesoraphidiidae, which we consider to be mostly stem-group plesiomorphies.


Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2026 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONIO ARILLO ◽  
ENRIQUE PEÑALVER ◽  
VICTORIA GARCÍA-GIMENO

In this paper Litoleptis fossilis sp. nov. a new fossil species belonging to the family Spaniidae (Diptera) is described. This is the first time the genus Litoleptis has been described from the fossil record. A comparison with extant species of Litoleptis and other fossil rhagionoids is done. The fossil is also compared to not closely related Diptera but having convergent wing venation. Palaeoecological and palaeobiogeographical comments are provided.


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