Abstract
There are remarkably few direct fossil records of Copepoda, which implies that current estimates of the lineage divergence times and inferences on the historical biogeography remain highly dubious for these small-sized crustaceans. The Cyclopidae, a predominantly freshwater copepod family with 1000+ species and distributed worldwide, has no fossil record at all. Recent collections from the middle Miocene Barstow Formation in Southern California resulted in ample material of finely preserved cyclopid fossils, including both adult and larval stages. To document the antennulary setation pattern in the adult and copepodid instars we used a coding system that is coherent between sexes and developmental stages. The majority of the cyclopid fossils, coming from saline lake environment, represent the modern genus Apocyclops, a euryhaline, thermophilic group occurring both in the New World and Old World. A new species Apocyclops californicus is described, based on the short medial spine and spiny ornamentation of ...
Highlights
There are remarkably few direct fossil records of Copepoda, which implies that current estimates of the lineage divergence times and inferences on the historical biogeography remain highly dubious for these small-sized crustaceans
Recent collections from the middle Miocene Barstow Formation in Southern California resulted in ample material of finely preserved cyclopid fossils, including both adult and larval stages
To document the antennulary setation pattern in the adult and copepodid instars we used a coding system that is coherent between sexes and developmental stages
Summary
There are remarkably few direct fossil records of Copepoda, which implies that current estimates of the lineage divergence times and inferences on the historical biogeography remain highly dubious for these small-sized crustaceans. The Cyclopidae, a predominantly freshwater copepod family with 1000+ species and distributed worldwide, has no fossil record at all.
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