scholarly journals Ecology and Evolution of Gall-Inducing Arthropods: The Pattern From the Terrestrial Fossil Record

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conrad C. Labandeira
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Venn Diagram ◽  
Northern Iran ◽  
Early Eocene Climatic Optimum ◽  
Plant Hosts ◽  
Early Neogene

Insect and mite galls on land plants have a spotty but periodically rich and abundant fossil record of damage types (DTs), ichnotaxa, and informally described gall morphotypes. The earliest gall is on a liverwort of the Middle Devonian Period at 385 million years ago (Ma). A 70-million-year-long absence of documented gall activity ensues. Gall activity resumes during the Pennsylvanian Period (315 Ma) on vegetative and reproductive axial organs of horsetails, ferns, and probably conifers, followed by extensive diversification of small, early hemipteroid galler lineages on seed-plant foliage during the Permian Period. The end-Permian (P-Tr) evolutionary and ecological crisis extinguished most gall lineages; survivors diversified whose herbivore component communities surpassed pre-P-Tr levels within 10 million years in the mid-to late Triassic (242 Ma). During the late Triassic and Jurassic Period, new groups of galling insects colonized Ginkgoales, Bennettitales, Pinales, Gnetales, and other gymnosperms, but data are sparse. Diversifying mid-Cretaceous (125–90 Ma) angiosperms hosted a major expansion of 24 gall DTs organized as herbivore component communities, each in overlapping Venn-diagram fashion on early lineages of Austrobaileyales, Laurales, Chloranthales, and Eurosidae for the Dakota Fm (103 Ma). Gall diversification continued into the Ora Fm (92 Ma) of Israel with another 25 gall morphotypes, but as ichnospecies on a different spectrum of plant hosts alongside the earliest occurrence of parasitoid attack. The End-Cretaceous (K-Pg) extinction event (66 Ma) almost extinguished host–specialist DTs; surviving gall lineages expanded to a pre-K-Pg level 10 million years later at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) (56 Ma), at which time a dramatic increase of land surface temperatures and multiplying of atmospheric pCO2 levels induced a significant level of increased herbivory, although gall diversity increased only after the PETM excursion and during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO). After the EECO, modern (or structurally convergent) gall morphotypes originate in the mid-Paleogene (49–40 Ma), evidenced by the Republic, Messel, and Eckfeld floras on hosts different from their modern analogs. During subsequent global aridification, the early Neogene (20 Ma) Most flora of the Czech Republic records several modern associations with gallers and plant hosts congeneric with their modern analogs. Except for 21 gall DTs in New Zealand flora, the gall record decreases in richness, although an early Pleistocene (3 Ma) study in France documents the same plant surviving as an endemic northern Iran but with decreasing associational, including gall, host specificity.

A new species of spongiphorine earwig in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic (Dermaptera: Spongiphoridae)

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 560-565
Author(s):  
MICHAEL S. ENGEL
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Crown Group ◽  
Rich Variety ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Neogene ◽  
A New Species

Earwigs (Dermaptera) are an often-ignored group of polyneopteran insects, with nearly 2000 extant species distributed throughout the world (Grimaldi & Engel, 2005; Stork, 2018). All of the modern diversity belongs to the suborder Neodermaptera, a clade that first definitively appears in the Early Cretaceous (Engel et al., 2011; Wolfe et al., 2016), but likely diverged in the Late Jurassic, although there is a rich gradation of earlier earwig variety extending back to at least the Late Triassic (Kelly et al., 2017). The earlier-diverging lineages (such as Archidermaptera, Eodermaptera, and Turanodermaptera [Turanodermatidae]) lack some of the otherwise characteristic synapomorphies of crown-group Dermaptera, such as loss of ocelli, loss of tegminal venation, or reduction of the ovipositor (Grimaldi & Engel, 2005). While there is a rich variety of forms and morphological disparity among fossil Dermaptera, their record compared to other orders remains comparatively meagre. Given this overall scarcity in the fossil record, there is nonetheless a decent variety of lineages documented from various Cenozoic deposits (Wappler et al., 2005). A fairly large number of taxa have been described from Palaeogene and early Neogene impressions (e.g., Heer, 1865; Zhang, 1989; Zhang et al., 1994; Chatzimanolis & Engel, 2010), although the precise systematic placement of many are challenging to confirm given the nature of their preservation and the characters widely needed to properly assign earwigs. Those species preserved as amber inclusions offer a wider breadth of characters from which to ascertain affinities, and earwigs have been previously described from Oise, Baltic, Dominican, and Mexican ambers (Burr, 1911a; Nel et al., 2003; Ross & Engel, 2013; Engel, 2016, 2017).

The nasal cavity of two traversodontid cynodonts (Eucynodontia, Gomphodontia) from the Upper Triassic of Brazil

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Arymathéia Santos Franco ◽  
Rodrigo Temp Müller ◽  
Agustín G. Martinelli ◽  
Carolina A. Hoffmann ◽  
Leonardo Kerber
Keyword(s):  
Nasal Cavity ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Nasal Septum ◽  
Internal Surface ◽  
Nasolacrimal Duct ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Southern Brazil ◽  
Dorsal Region ◽  
Left And Right

Abstract Traversodontidae is a group of Triassic herbivorous/omnivorous cynodonts that represents the most diversified lineage within Cynognathia. In southern Brazil, a rich fossil record of late Middle/mid-Late Triassic cynodonts has been documented, with Exaeretodon riograndensis Abdala, Barberena, and Dornelles, 2002 and Siriusgnathus niemeyerorum Pavanatto et al., 2018 representing two abundant and well-documented traversodontids. The present study provides a comparative analysis of the morphology of the nasal cavity, nasal recesses, nasolacrimal duct, and maxillary canals of both species using computed tomography, highlighting the changes that occurred in parallel to the origin of mammaliaforms. Our results show that there were no ossified turbinals or a cribriform plate delimiting the posterior end of the nasal cavity, suggesting these structures were probably cartilaginous as in nonmammaliaform cynodonts. Both species show lateral ridges on the internal surface of the roof of the nasal cavity, but the median ridge for the attachment of a nasal septum is absent. Exaeretodon riograndensis and S. niemeyerorum show recesses on the dorsal region of the nasal cavity, which increase the volume of the nasal cavity, potentially enhancing the olfactory chamber and contributing to the sense of smell. On the lateral sides of the nasal cavity, the analyzed taxa show a well-developed maxillary recess. Although E. riograndensis and S. niemeyerorum have roughly similar nasal cavities, in the former taxon, the space between the left and right dorsal recesses of the nasal cavity is uniform along its entire extension, whereas this space narrows posteriorly in S. niemeyerorum. Finally, the nasolacrimal duct of S. niemeyerorum is more inclined anteroposteriorly than in E. riograndensis.

scholarly journals Spatial Analysis of Urban Thermal Island in Northern Iran (Case Study: Rasht City)

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Mohammadpourzeid ◽  
Bohloul Alijani ◽  
Mehry Akbary ◽  
Parviz Zeaieanfirouzabadi
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Northern Iran ◽  
Spatial Trend ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Landsat Satellite ◽  
The City

Abstract Land surface temperature (LST) is one of the key parameters in hydrology, meteorology, and the surface energy balance.The one-window algorithm of Kim et al. Uses Landsat satellite imagery to model the earth's surface temperature.These trends are validated using meteorological data. Two main and basic factors play a major role in the temporal and spatial trend of the thermal islands of Rasht. These two factors of climate change that have occurred in the last two decades in the region of Gilan province and the city of Rasht. The second factor that has greatly enhanced the effect of the first factor is the human factor that has greatly included other urban factors in Rasht, including urban management and proper urban planning in the province and the city of Rasht. These two factors in the temporal and spatial trend of urban thermal islands have caused thermal islands to rapidly increase the growth of the city and urban population from the urban center to the western and southwestern regions and have very negative effects on land use changes and human areas. It has caused the construction of Rasht city.

scholarly journals Spider crabs of the Western Atlantic with special reference to fossil and some modern Mithracidae

PeerJ ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e1301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adiël A. Klompmaker ◽  
Roger W. Portell ◽  
Aaron T. Klier ◽  
Vanessa Prueter ◽  
Alyssa L. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Western Atlantic ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Length Width ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
First Time

Spider crabs (Majoidea) are well-known from modern oceans and are also common in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean. When spider crabs appeared in the Western Atlantic in deep time, and when they became diverse, hinges on their fossil record. By reviewing their fossil record, we show that (1) spider crabs first appeared in the Western Atlantic in the Late Cretaceous, (2) they became common since the Miocene, and (3) most species and genera are found in the Caribbean region from the Miocene onwards. Furthermore, taxonomic work on some modern and fossil Mithracidae, a family that might have originated in the Western Atlantic, was conducted. Specifically,Maguimithraxgen. nov. is erected to accommodate the extant speciesDamithrax spinosissimus, whileDamithraxcf.pleuracanthusis recognized for the first time from the fossil record (late Pliocene–early Pleistocene, Florida, USA). Furthermore, two new species are described from the lower Miocene coral-associated limestones of Jamaica (Mithrax arawakumsp. nov. andNemausa windsoraesp. nov.). Spurred by a recent revision of the subfamily, two known species from the same deposits are refigured and transferred to new genera:Mithrax donovanitoNemausa, andMithrax unguistoDamithrax. The diverse assemblage of decapods from these coral-associated limestones underlines the importance of reefs for the abundance and diversity of decapods in deep time. Finally, we quantitatively show that these crabs possess allometric growth in that length/width ratios drop as specimens grow, a factor that is not always taken into account while describing and comparing among taxa.

Perspectives on the Evolution and Diversification of the Diatoms

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Julius
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Clock ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Early Jurassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Evolutionary Relationships ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Diatom Species ◽  
Generic Level ◽  
Existing Data

The understanding of diatom evolution has progressed greatly over the last two decades. Existing data sets have been reanalyzed, new data sets have been generated, and new tools have been employed. Hindering progress is the seemingly endless number of diatom species remaining to be described and relative small number of investigators active in the field. This problem is further confounded by the dramatic reorganization of generic level classification in the group. Despite these problems, many conclusions can be made about prior hypotheses concerning the group's development. Most notably, the origin of the diatoms can be bracketed between the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic using fossil record and molecular clock estimates. This combination of techniques has also provided consensus and clarification to the origin and duration of specific lineages enhancing our understanding of the group's diversification, early ecology, and evolutionary relationships.

Taxonomic diversity estimation using rarefaction

Paleobiology ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Raup
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Sample Size ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Early Jurassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
Large Samples

Benthic ecologists have successfully applied rarefaction techniques to the problem of compensating for the effect of sample size on apparent species diversity (= species richness). The same method can be used in studies of diversity at higher taxonomic levels (families and orders) in the fossil record where samples represent world-wide distributions of species or genera over long periods of geologic time.Application of rarefaction to several large samples of post-Paleozoic echinoids (totaling 7,911 species) confirms the utility of the method. Rarefaction shows that the observed increase in the number of echinoid families since the Paleozoic is real in the sense that it cannot be explained solely by the increase in numbers of preserved species. There has been no statistically significant increase in the number of families since mid-Cretaceous, however. At the order level, echinoid diversity may have been nearly constant since late Triassic or early Jurassic.

scholarly journals Shell bone histology indicates terrestrial palaeoecology of basal turtles

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1620) ◽  
pp. 1885-1893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten M Scheyer ◽  
P.Martin Sander
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Compact Bone ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
Bone Histology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Aquatic Habitats ◽  
Terrestrial Habitat ◽  
Limb Bone ◽  
Terrestrial Habitats

The palaeoecology of basal turtles from the Late Triassic was classically viewed as being semi-aquatic, similar to the lifestyle of modern snapping turtles. Lately, this view was questioned based on limb bone proportions, and a terrestrial palaeoecology was suggested for the turtle stem. Here, we present independent shell bone microstructural evidence for a terrestrial habitat of the oldest and basal most well-known turtles, i.e. the Upper Triassic Proterochersis robusta and Proganochelys quenstedti . Comparison of their shell bone histology with that of extant turtles preferring either aquatic habitats or terrestrial habitats clearly reveals congruence with terrestrial turtle taxa. Similarities in the shell bones of these turtles are a diploe structure with well-developed external and internal cortices, weak vascularization of the compact bone layers and a dense nature of the interior cancellous bone with overall short trabeculae. On the other hand, ‘aquatic’ turtles tend to reduce cortical bone layers, while increasing overall vascularization of the bone tissue. In contrast to the study of limb bone proportions, the present study is independent from the uncommon preservation of appendicular skeletal elements in fossil turtles, enabling the palaeoecological study of a much broader range of incompletely known turtle taxa in the fossil record.

scholarly journals A thin-shelled reptile from the Late Triassic of North America and the origin of the turtle shell

2008 ◽  
Vol 276 (1656) ◽  
pp. 507-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter G Joyce ◽  
Spencer G Lucas ◽  
Torsten M Scheyer ◽  
Andrew B Heckert ◽  
Adrian P Hunt
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
North America ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Terrestrial Habitat ◽  
Turtle Shell ◽  
Shell Elements ◽  
Stem Lineage

A new, thin-shelled fossil from the Upper Triassic (Revueltian: Norian) Chinle Group of New Mexico, Chinlechelys tenertesta , is one of the most primitive known unambiguous members of the turtle stem lineage. The thin-shelled nature of the new turtle combined with its likely terrestrial habitat preference hint at taphonomic filters that basal turtles had to overcome before entering the fossil record. Chinlechelys tenertesta possesses neck spines formed by multiple osteoderms, indicating that the earliest known turtles were covered with rows of dermal armour. More importantly, the primitive, vertically oriented dorsal ribs of the new turtle are only poorly associated with the overlying costal bones, indicating that these two structures are independent ossifications in basal turtles. These novel observations lend support to the hypothesis that the turtle shell was originally a complex composite in which dermal armour fused with the endoskeletal ribs and vertebrae of an ancestral lineage instead of forming de novo. The critical shell elements (i.e. costals and neurals) are thus not simple outgrowths of the bone of the endoskeletal elements as has been hypothesized from some embryological observations.

scholarly journals Slow and steady: the evolution of cranial disparity in fossil and recent turtles

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1843) ◽  
pp. 20161881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Foth ◽  
Walter G. Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Geometric Morphometrics ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Global Patterns ◽  
A Minor

Turtles (Testudinata) are a diverse group of amniotes that have a rich fossil record that extends back to the Late Triassic, but little is known about global patterns of disparity through time. We here investigate the cranial disparity of 172 representatives of the turtle lineage and their ancestors grouped into 20 time bins ranging from the Late Triassic until the Recent using two-dimensional geometric morphometrics. Three evolutionary phases are apparent in all three anatomical views investigated. In the first phase, disparity increases gradually from the Late Triassic to the Palaeogene with only a minor perturbation at the K/T extinct event. Although global warming may have influenced this increase, we find the Mesozoic fragmentation of Pangaea to be a more plausible factor. Following its maximum, disparity decreases strongly towards the Miocene, only to recover partially towards the Recent. The marked collapse in disparity is likely a result of habitat destruction caused by global drying, combined with the homogenization of global turtle faunas that resulted from increased transcontinental dispersal in the Tertiary. The disparity minimum in the Miocene is likely an artefact of poor sampling.

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