Description of a Cretaceous amber fossil putatively of the tribe Coprophilini (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Oxytelinae)

By

Makranczy, György
Yamamoto, Shuhei
Engel, Michael S.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

782

Pages

81-94

Subjects

Burmese amber , Cenomanian , Mesozoic , Myanmar , new genus , new species

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.782.27733

 

Abstract

An unusual and well-preserved fossil staphylinid is described and figured from a single specimen in Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber. Gollandiaplanatagen. et sp. n. is tentatively placed in the extant oxyteline tribe Coprophilini, although it lacks a few characteristic features of present-day members of the group, likely indicating it to be either a stem group of the tribe or prove to be distinct pending future discoveries. The discovery of this genus suggests that early oxytelines were more morphologically diverse during the Cretaceous and their evolutionary history was more complicated than previously documented. Tribal placement as regards fossil oxyteline taxa is discussed.