Abstract
Recent findings of ommatids from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber have greatly increased our knowledge on the Mesozoic diversity of Ommatidae. Here, we report the first distinctly miniaturized ommatid species, Miniomma chenkuni gen. et sp. nov., entombed in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. This new fossil species is characterized by its small body size (less than 2 mm long) and subglobular metacoxae. Our discovery of miniaturization in extinct Ommatidae suggests a high ecological diversity of this family in the Mesozoic.
Highlights
Ommatidae is a small family in the beetle suborder Archostemata, with only three extant genera, Omma Newman and Beutelius Escalona et al in Australia, and Tetraphalerus Waterhouse in South America (Hörnschemeyer & Beutel, 2016; Lawrence & Escalona, 2019; Escalona et al, 2020)
Even though the fossils have greatly enriched our knowledge on the morphological diversity of Ommatidae, there are some conserved characters within Ommatidae
Tan et al (2012) claimed that the cutting edge of mandible is horizontal in most fossil ommatids
Summary
Ommatidae is a small family in the beetle suborder Archostemata, with only three extant genera, Omma Newman and Beutelius Escalona et al in Australia, and Tetraphalerus Waterhouse in South America (Hörnschemeyer & Beutel, 2016; Lawrence & Escalona, 2019; Escalona et al, 2020). Fossil records have revealed that ommatids had a much higher diversity during the Mesozoic, as well as wider distribution (Cai & Huang, 2017; Kirejtshuk, 2020). Various exquisitely preserved ommatids have been described from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, including at least 21 species in 11 genera (generic assignment according to original authors) (Ross, 2019, 2020; Jarzembowski et al, 2020; Kirejtshuk, 2020). These amber inclusions with astonishingly fine details greatly enhanced our understanding of the diversity and disparity of Mesozoic ommatids
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