How time flies for flies : diverse Diptera from the Triassic of Virginia and early radiation of the order

Title Variants

Alternative: Diptera from the Triassic of Virginia and early radiation of the order

Alternative: Diverse Diptera from the Triassic of Virginia and early radiation of the order

Alternative: Triassic Diptera

Related Titles

Series: American Museum novitates, no. 3572

By

Blagoderov, Vladimir Aleksandrovich 1968-

Grimaldi, David A.
Fraser, Nicholas C.

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, NY American Museum of Natural History c2007

Notes

Caption title.

"May 16, 2007."

"All of the Diptera specimens ... are from the quarries of the Solite Corporation in Cascade, Virginia ... on the border of Virginia and North Carolina ... in the Danville-Dan River Jurassic-Triassic rift lake basin of the eastern U.S."--P. 2, 5.

The most diverse and best-preserved early fauna of flies (order Diptera) is described from the late Carnian (late Triassic, ca. 220 Ma) of Virginia, USA. Complete flies are preserved as aluminosilicate films on very fine-grained shales from the Cow Branch Formation, which is part ofthe Newark Supergroup of early Mesozoic rift basins from eastern North America. The dipteran fauna consists of eight families (one new), 11 genera (five new), and 16 species (11 new), and includes the following taxa (Blagoderov and Grimaldi are the authors of all new names): Architipula youngi Krzemiński, Metarchilimonia krzeminskorum n.gen., n.sp., and M. solita n.sp. (Limoniidae); Triassopsychoda olseni n.gen., n.sp. (Psychodidae); Culicomorpha indet.; Yalea argentata (Krzemiński), Y. rectimedia n.sp., Alinka cara Krzemiński (Procramptonomyiidae); Veriplecia rugosa n.sp., Virginiptera certa n.gen., n.sp., V. similis n.sp., V. lativentra n.sp. (Paraxymyiidae); Brachyrhyphus distortus n.gen. n.sp. (Protorhyphidae); ?Crosaphis virginiensis n.sp. (Crosaphididae); and Prosechamyia trimedia n.gen., n.sp., P. dimedia n.sp. (Prosechamyiidae, new family). Particularly significant is a culicomorphan with a long proboscis, which is the earliest fossil record of a structure specialized apparently for blood feeding. Also, Prosechamyia appears to be a stem group to the very diverse infraorder Brachycera, the earliest definitive members of which appear in the early Jurassic. Phylogenetic relationships of major clades of living and extinct nematocerous Diptera are analyzed, indicating that infraordinal-level diversification was complete by the late Triassic. Flies did not reach modern levels of ecological abundance until the mid-Jurassic, apparently due to diversification within most infraorders by that time.

Subjects

Cascade (Pittsylvania County) , Dan River Region (Va. and N.C.) , Diptera , Diptera, Fossil , Evolution , Insects, Fossil , Paleontology , Phylogeny , Triassic , Virginia

Call Number

QL1 .A436 no.3572 2007

Language

English

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0082(2007)509[1:HTFFFD]2.0.CO;2
OCLC: 133149026