Paleobiology of beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) from Western European Cretaceous ambers
Résumé
The whole assemblage of beetles in the Cretaceous
ambers of Western Europe (Spain and France) is surveyed
for the first time (Peris et al., 2016). Spanish amber (upper
Albian in age) has 149 specimens of 30 families while
French amber (upper Albian–Santonian in age) has 65
specimens of 16 families (Table 1). Only five families are
shared by both ambers: Caridae (Fig. 3E), Ptinidae,
Scraptiidae (Fig. 6C), Staphylinidae, and Trogossitidae;
thus totaling 41 different families identified, mainly into
Polyphaga (Table 1). This low number of shared families is
surprising, considering the paleogeographic and temporal
proximilty of both areas (Figs. 1-2). The sligthly ancient
origin for the Spanish amber, the paleogeography (including
some barriers for terrestrial biota) and the local
paleohabitats are factors that may explain the dissimilarity
with the French specimens.The Spanish and French ambers clearly contain, up today, the oldest representatives of the Polyphagan families: Bostrichidae (Fig. 3C), Elmidae,
Eucinetidae (Fig. 4A), Histeridae (Fig. 4B), Jacobsoniidae (Fig. 4C), Leiodidae, Limnichidae (Fig. 4E), Nosodendridae (Fig. 5C), Oedemeridae, Omethidae
(Fig. 5D), Phalacridae (Fig. 5E), Ripiphoridae (Fig. 6A), and Tetratomidae (Fig. 6F). Furthermore, the records for the families Bostrichidae, Elmidae,
Limnichidae, Nosodendridae, Omethidae and Phalacridae are the sole record for the whole Mesozoic (Peris, 2015). This means that all these families
already existed at least in the late Early Cretaceous and have persisted until now.
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Cohen, K.M., Finney, S.C., Gibbard, P.L., Fan, J.-X. 2013 . The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36, 199–204.
The involvement of beetles in high resin production during the
Cretaceous has been reconsidered after the low presence of
wood-borer families in these and other Cretaceous ambers from
the Tethyan realm. By contrast, most families identified currently
maintain a saproxylic or detritivorous life style (Table 1).
Therefore, this release of resin was influenced by other causes
such as wildfires, storms or some other biological effect (Peris et
al., 2016).