First fossil record of polypore fungus beetles from Lower Cretaceous amber of France

Carmen Soriano (1) , Darren Pollock (2) , Didier Néraudeau (3) , Andre Nel (4) , Paul Tafforeau (1)

1 ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
2 Department of Biology
3 GR - Géosciences Rennes
4 OSEB - Origine, structure et évolution de la biodiversité

The first fossil genus and species of Tetratomidae (Coleoptera) is described, from the Lower Cretaceous amber deposits of France. The new genus represents the first insect to be recognized inside an opaque piece of amber, through the use of propagation phase contrast X-ray microtomography using synchrotron radiation. This new finding proves the capabil-ities of this imaging technique in amber inclusions, as well as increases the knowledge of fossil tenebrionoids, a group scarcely recognized in the Cretaceous fossil record.

Keywords: Coleoptera; Tetratomidae; amber; propagation phase contrast X-Ray microtomography; synchrotron; Cretaceous; Charentes; France

Domains: Earth Sciences

Carmen Soriano, Darren Pollock, Didier Néraudeau, Andre Nel, Paul Tafforeau. First fossil record of polypore fungus beetles from Lower Cretaceous amber of France. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 2014, 59 (4), pp.941 - 946. ⟨10.4202/app.2012.0074⟩. ⟨insu-01118502⟩