Immature Insect Assemblages from the Early Cretaceous (Purbeck/Wealden) of Southern England

The record of immature insects from the non-marine Purbeck and Wealden groups (Lower Cretaceous) of southern England is reviewed and expanded. Fossils of adult terrestrial insects are locally common, but terrestrial immature remains are restricted to transported hemipterans, most of which are sessile nymphs or puparia resembling those of extant whiteflies (Aleyrodidae). Remains of immature aquatic insects are more diverse and comprise the extant orders Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Trichoptera, Hemiptera and Diptera. The Trichoptera are represented by larval cases constructed from a variety of materials corresponding to several ichnogenera. The Wealden immature insects were preserved in predominantly freshwater fluvial settings, whereas the Purbeck ones occur in lagoonal palaeoenvironments, ranging in salinity from brackish to hypersaline. The composition of aquatic immature insect faunas in the latter offers potential for palaeosalinity analysis, although there are complicating factors relating to habitat stability. Uncommon trace fossils such as beetle borings in wood provide evidence of immature insects not represented by body fossils.

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Palaeoenvironmental significance of storm coquinas in a Lower Cretaceous coastal lagoonal succession (Vectis Formation, Isle of Wight, southern England)

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800003782 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 137 (2) ◽

pp. 193-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

JONATHAN D. RADLEY ◽

MICHAEL J. BARKER

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Principal Components ◽

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Coastal Lagoons ◽

Trace Fossils ◽

Isle Of Wight ◽

Southern England ◽

Desiccation Cracks ◽

Stratigraphic Framework

Thin bioclastic limestone beds (‘coquinas’) in the Vectis Formation (Wealden Group, Lower Cretaceous) of the Isle of Wight, southern England, exhibit a range of biofabrics and internal stratigraphies. These features are attributed to both simple and complex storm deposition of allochthonous biogenic and siliciclastic materials in coastal lagoons and on adjacent mudflats. These modes of deposition facilitated preservation of dinosaur trackways, desiccation cracks, shallow-tier trace fossils and in situ bivalve colonies through rapid burial. The coquinas thus preserve a record of surficial muds, commonly lost through reworking. The principal components of the coquinas comprise dispersed elements from within the argillaceous ‘background’ facies. Some of these beds are laterally traceable for up to 27 km, providing the foundations for a high-resolution event-stratigraphic framework.

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A new genus and species of Palaeontinidae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha) from the Lower Cretaceous of southern England

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.1751.1.7 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1751 (1) ◽

pp. 65 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

BO WANG ◽

HAICHUN ZHANG ◽

EDMUND A. JARZEMBOWSKI

Keyword(s):

Early Cretaceous ◽

Lower Cretaceous ◽

New Genus ◽

New Genus And Species ◽

Southern England ◽

Wing Base ◽

The Uk

Valdicossus chesteri, a new genus and species belonging to Palaeontinidae (Insecta, Hemiptera), is described based on a well-preserved hindwing from the Early Cretaceous Wealden Supergroup of southern England. The specimen is the first well-preserved hindwing of Palaeontinidae from the UK. It differs from other genera as follows: veins M 1 , M 2 and M 3+4 arise from stem M near wing base; vein M 3+4 unbranched; fusion between veins RP and M 1 basal of the level of wing indentation; and vein A 1 absent.

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The first orthophlebiid scorpionfly (Insecta: Mecoptera) from the Wealden (Lower Cretaceous) of southern England

Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ◽

10.1017/s1755691017000081 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 107 (2-3) ◽

pp. 191-194 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ed Jarzembowski ◽

Agnieszka Soszyńska-Maj

Keyword(s):

Early Cretaceous ◽

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Middle Triassic ◽

Southern England ◽

The Family

ABSTRACTThe Family Orthophlebiidae ranges from the Middle Triassic to the Early Cretaceous. The Wealden Mecoptera have added to our knowledge of the Mecoptera from the Early Cretaceous of southern England, but have been comparatively little studied. Here we present the description of the first orthophlebiid from the Wealden of England. Mesopanorpa brooksorum sp. nov. from England is the earliest Cretaceous representative of this genus.

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Rare bryozoans from the Gault Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian) of Kent, England

Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen ◽

10.1127/njgpa/2020/0903 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 296 (1) ◽

pp. 201-209

Author(s):

Paul D. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Early Cretaceous ◽

Late Cretaceous ◽

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Spiral Pattern ◽

Southern England ◽

Vertical Walls ◽

Clay Formation ◽

First Time

Relatively few bryozoans have been recorded to date from the Gault Clay Formation of southern England, yet the Albian (late Early Cretaceous) age of this unit makes it potentially of importance in understanding the roots of the major radiations of cheilostome and cyclostome bryozoans during the Late Cretaceous. Two bryozoan genera are here described for the first time from the Gault Clay on the basis of single specimens from the upper part of this unit at Paddlesworth (Kent), recently discovered in the collection of the late Joe Collins. A colony of the cheilostome Wawalia crenulata that preserves the putative ancestrula reveals two novel features: a spiral pattern of early budding and the presence of pyrite-filled lacunae in the thick vertical walls of the zooids. The second bryozoan is a branch fragment of the erect eleid cyclostome genus Biforicula. Representing the oldest record of this genus, it is described as Biforicula collinsi sp. nov.

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Trace fossils and pseudofossils from the Wealden strata (non-marine Lower Cretaceous) of southern England

Cretaceous Research ◽

10.1016/j.cretres.2005.03.001 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 665-685 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

Roland Goldring ◽

John E. Pollard ◽

Jonathan D. Radley

Keyword(s):

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Trace Fossils ◽

Southern England

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Bivalve trace fossils (Lockeia) from the Barnes High Sandstone (Wealden Group, Lower Cretaceous) of the Wessex Sub-basin, southern England

Cretaceous Research ◽

10.1006/cres.1997.0109 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 19 (3-4) ◽

pp. 505-509 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jonathan D. Radley ◽

Michael J. Barker ◽

Martin C. Munt

Keyword(s):

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Trace Fossils ◽

Southern England

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PROBABLE AVIAN FEEDING TRACE FOSSILS FROM THE CEDAR MOUNTAIN FORMATION (LOWER CRETACEOUS), UTAH USA

10.1130/abs/2018am-318336 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Anthony J. Martin ◽

◽

James I. Kirkland ◽

Donald D. DeBlieux ◽

Vincent L. Santucci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Trace Fossils ◽

Cedar Mountain Formation ◽

Feeding Trace

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Convergent evolution of ramified antennae in insect lineages from the Early Cretaceous of Northeastern China

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2016.1448 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 283 (1839) ◽

pp. 20161448 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Taiping Gao ◽

Chungkun Shih ◽

Conrad C. Labandeira ◽

Jorge A. Santiago-Blay ◽

Yunzhi Yao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Early Cretaceous ◽

Motion Detection ◽

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Fossil Record ◽

Convergent Evolution ◽

Chemical Cues ◽

Northeastern China ◽

Environmental Cues ◽

Key Innovation ◽

Temperature Levels

Antennae are important, insect sensory organs that are used principally for communication with other insects and the detection of environmental cues. Some insects independently evolved ramified (branched) antennae, which house several types of sensilla for motion detection, sensing olfactory and chemical cues, and determining humidity and temperature levels. Though ramified antennae are common in living insects, occasionally they are present in the Mesozoic fossil record. Here, we present the first caddisflies with ramified antennae, the earliest known fossil sawfly, and a scorpionfly also with ramified antennae from the mid-Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Northeastern China, dated at 125 million years ago (Ma). These three insect taxa with ramified antennae consist of three unrelated lineages and provide evidence for broad structural convergence that historically has been best demonstrated by features such as convergent mouthparts. In addition, ramified antennae in these Mid-Mesozoic lineages likely do not constitute a key innovation, as they are not associated with significantly increased diversification compared with closely related lineages lacking this trait, and nor are they ecologically isolated from numerous, co-occurring insect species with unmodified antennae.

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