The earliest occurrence and remarkable stasis of the family Bostrichidae (Coleoptera: Polyphaga) in Cretaceous Charentes amber

David Peris (1) , Xavier Delclos (1) , Carmen Soriano (2) , Vincent Perrichot (3)

1 Departament d'Estratigrafia, Paleontología i Geociències Marines
2 ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
3 GR - Géosciences Rennes

A new species of beetle (Stephanopachys vetus) has been found embedded in opaque fossil resin. The fossil was collected in a quarry from the south-west of France, which is Cretaceous in age (100 m.y.a.). The biological inclusions entombed in opaque resin are inaccessible with conventional optical methods, so a methodological process with high potential X-ray to obtain a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the specimen is used in this work. The resulting images permit the description of the new species and comparison with extant species from the same genus. It is possible to conjecture an effect of the palaeofires regard to the resin production mechanisms and the ecology of this beetle family. A bibliographic review of the fossil record of the family is also offered.

Domains: Earth Sciences

David Peris, Xavier Delclos, Carmen Soriano, Vincent Perrichot. The earliest occurrence and remarkable stasis of the family Bostrichidae (Coleoptera: Polyphaga) in Cretaceous Charentes amber. Palaeontologia Electronica, 2014, 17 (1), pp.14A. ⟨insu-01118899⟩