Abstract
A fossil palpigrade is described and figured from mid-Cretaceous (Cenomanian) amber from northern Myanmar. Electrokoenenia yaksha Engel and Huang, gen. n. et sp. n., is the first Mesozoic fossil of its order and the only one known as an inclusion in amber, the only other fossil being a series of individuals encased in Pliocene onyx marble and 94-97 million years younger than E. yaksha. The genus is distinguished from other members of the order but is remarkably consistent in observable morphological details when compared to extant relatives, likely reflecting a consistent microhabitat and biological preferences over the last 100 million years.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 19 |
| Journal | Die Naturwissenschaften |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:H.D.-Y. was supported through the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB821903) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41222013), while that of D.A. was through the collaborative project, “Biodiversity: Origin, Structure, Evolution and Geology” granted by the Lebanese University. L.C.V.B. was partially supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation grant (DEB-1144162, to M.S.E.), and M.A. through a doctoral fellowship from the Fondo para la Innovación, Ciencia y Tecnología, Peru. We are immensely grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This is a contribution of the Division of Entomology, University of Kansas Natural History Museum.
Publisher Copyright:
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016.
Keywords
- Burmese amber
- Cenomanian
- Chelicerata
- Mesozoic
- Palpigradi
- Taxonomy