From Bitterfeld Amber, Germany
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The first fossil cyphophthalmid (Arachnida: Opiliones), from Bitterfeld amber, Germany The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Dunlop, Jason A., and Gonzalo Giribet. 2003. “THE FIRST FOSSIL CYPHOPHTHALMID (ARACHNIDA, OPILIONES) FROM BITTERFELD AMBER, GERMANY.” Journal of Arachnology 31 (3) (December): 371– 378. doi:10.1636/h03-03. http://dx.doi.org/10.1636/h03-03. Published Version doi:10.1636/h03-03 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:14919191 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA 2003. The Journal of Arachnology 31:371±378 THE FIRST FOSSIL CYPHOPHTHALMID (ARACHNIDA, OPILIONES) FROM BITTERFELD AMBER, GERMANY Jason A. Dunlop: Institut fuÈr Systematische Zoologie, Museum fuÈr Naturkunde der Humboldt-UniversitaÈt zu Berlin, Invalidenstraûe 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: [email protected] Gonzalo Giribet: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA ABSTRACT. The ®rst fossil cyphophthalmid harvestman, Siro platypedibus new species (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi), is described from Bitterfeld amber, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. The age of this amber is in dispute. Geological studies support a Miocene (20±22 Ma) date for the deposit, but the presence of insect species identical to those in Baltic amber (dated at ca. 35±40 Ma) has led other authors to suggest that the Bitterfeld amber comprises older, redeposited material, contemporary with Baltic in- clusions. Two features in this harvestman fossil are consistent with the Recent genera Siro, Paramiopsalis and Tranteeva: (a) smooth tarsi and metatarsi in legs 1 and 2 and (b) the apparent absence of a dorsal crest on the basal article of the chelicera. Unequivocal autapomorphies of any one of these genera are not clearly preserved in this fossil, but Paramiopsalis is a monotypic Iberian genus, and Tranteeva is a monotypic genus from Bulgaria, while Siro is more diverse and widely distributed, including living rep- resentatives in Central Europe relatively close to the Bitterfeld type locality. For this reason we assign the fossil to Siro. Keywords: Cyphophthalmi, Sironidae, Siro, taxonomy, paleontology, new species Fossil harvestmen are rare and their fossil are unconvincing. These Coal Measures fos- record is currently restricted to a few Paleo- sils lack autapomorphies of Cyphophthalmi zoic and Mesozoic examples together with a and are relatively large with long, slender legs more diverse Tertiary record based principally in at least some specimens. on the Florissant Formation and on Baltic and Cyphophthalmi are small to medium-sized, Dominican ambers; see e.g., Petrunkevitch inconspicuous, almost mite-like, creatures (1955), Cokendolpher & Cokendolpher with short, stubby legs which typically live in (1982) and Selden (1993) for reviews. The soil, leaf litter or caves (Shear 1980). They are majority of the fossil harvestmen have been often regarded as primitive harvestmen and referred to, or strongly resemble members of, recent phylogenetic studies (Shultz 1998; Gi- the Eupnoi and Dyspnoi clades. Among those ribet et al. 1999, 2002) have consistently specimens which have not been formally de- placed them in a basal position, as sister-group scribed there is a very old (c. 340 Ma), but to the remaining opilionids. The fossil record remarkably modern-looking, phalangioid har- provides minimum divergence times for vestman (Wood et al. 1985), which implies for clades, thus the recently published cladograms this group a high degree of morphological predict that the cyphophthalmid lineage conservatism over geological time. Laniatores should go back to at least the mid-Paleozoic, is currently known only from Tertiary ambers, the age of the oldest recorded harvestman (see and all of the Dominican amber harvestmen above). The systematics of the Recent cypho- described thus far are Laniatores (Cokendol- phthalmids have been summarized by the cat- pher & Poinar 1998). The remaining suborder, alogue of Giribet (2000), who recognized 113 Cyphophthalmi, has not previously been re- extant species in 26 genera, and the cladistic corded in the fossil record. Petrunkevitch analysis of generic relationships by Giribet & (1949) claimed that some of the Pennsylva- Boyer (2002). We refer to these publications nian Coal Measures harvestmen distinctly re- for additional background literature on the sembled cyphophthalmids, but his arguments group. In this paper we describe the ®rst fossil 371 372 THE JOURNAL OF ARACHNOLOGY cyphophthalmid, a specimen discovered in the taxa, including some spiders and a well-pre- Berlin collection of inclusions from the Bit- served phalangiid harvestman, and provided terfeld amber deposit of eastern Germany. an overview of the geological setting. Further geological details can be found in FuÈhrmann METHODS & Borsdorf (1986) and Kosmowska-Ceranow- The holotype, and only specimen, was in- icz & Krumbiegel (1989). formally recognized as a cyphophthalmid in Geological setting.ÐHistorically, amber 1989 by Manfred Moritz, the then Curator of has been recovered from a number of sites in Arachnids in the Zoology Department of the the vicinity of Bitterfeld and the adjacent Mul- Museum fuÈr Naturkunde, Berlin. It was thus de river in the Sachsen-Anhalt region of east- discovered too late to be listed in the sum- ern Germany (see e.g. Kosmowska-Ceranow- mary paper of Schumann & Wendt (1989) on icz & Krumbiegel 1989, ®g. 1). Since 1955 Bitterfeld inclusions. The fossil was not sub- the principal source of amber, almost certainly sequently formally described. The specimen is including the specimen described here, has held in the Arthropod Section of the Paleon- been the now disused, open-cast Braunkohl tology Department of the Museum fuÈr Natur- mine of Goitsche near Bitterfeld. The amber- kunde Berlin (MB.A.) under the repository producing horizon consists of a series of mas- number 1086. Drawings were prepared with sive, sandy-clay lenses which, according to the aid of a camera lucida attachment and the the local geological terminology, lie between fossil was compared to all extant genera of the Bitterfeld main coal seam and the Breiten- Cyphophthalmi and to most species of Siron- feld seam (Kosmowska-Ceranowicz & Krum- idae (see e.g. Giribet & Boyer 2002, Appen- biegel 1989, ®g. 3). The sand and clay have dix 2). Digital photographs (Figs. 1±2) were been interpreted as representing a period of taken using a JVC Digital Camera KY-F70B marine ingression which was dated on spore mounted on a Leica MZ 12.5 stereomicro- evidence to sporomorph zone IIIA according scope. Series of ca. 20 images were taken at to the German Democratic Republic strati- different focal planes and assembled with the graphic scale for the Tertiary (Krutsch in Bar- dedicated software package Auto-Montage thel & Hetzer 1982). This spore zone corre- 4.01.0085 by Synoptics Ltd. All measure- lates to a lower Miocene (lower Aquitanian) ments are in mm. age. Age of the amber.ÐAmber is notoriously BITTERFELD AMBER dif®cult to date precisely and the Bitterfeld Amber from the Bitterfeld region of Ger- inclusions have been assigned to anything be- many has been known since at least the mid tween an Eocene and a Miocene age. Barthel 17th century; see Kosmowska-Ceranowicz & & Hetzer (1982) interpreted Bitterfeld amber Krumbiegel (1989) for a review. This Bitter- as younger than Baltic amber, dating the for- feld, or Saxon (5Saxonian), amber is not as mer at lower Miocene (ca. 22 Ma) based on well known as Baltic or Dominican amber. a combination of the regional geology and mi- The locality was originally kept secret by the crobotany (see above). The inclusion-bearing German Democratic Republic on the suspi- pieces unequivocally lie in situ in strata as- cion that it was associated with uranium de- sociated with the Miocene coal seams (M. posits (M. Barthel, pers. comm., 2003), but in Barthel, pers. comm., 2003). Wunderlich recent years it has seen increased activity from (1983) suggested that the Bitterfeld amber amateur collectors. It nevertheless contains a was merely part of the Baltic amber complex diverse range of inclusions, provisionally list- and thus implicitly late Oligocene/Eocene (ca. ed by Schumann & Wendt (1989). Although 35±40 Ma) in age. He derived these conclu- there have been numerous papers on the sions from a (very provisional) survey of sim- plants, fungi and, especially, the insect fauna ilar faunal (spider) and ¯oral elements in both (e.g. RoÈschmann 1997; Wagner et al. 2000), ambers. Fuhrmann & Borsdorf (1986) sup- the arachnids remain quite poorly studied with ported the Miocene age and rejected this re- only a few formal species descriptions (e.g. deposition hypothesis. These authors present- Wunderlich 1993). The ®rst concerted study ed a detailed physico-chemical analysis in of the inclusions was by Barthel & Hetzer which they argued that the composition of (1982). These authors ®gured a number of mineralogical species in Bitterfeld amber dif- DUNLOP & GIRIBETÐFOSSIL CYPHOPHTHALMID IN AMBER 373 Figures 1±2.ÐSiro platypedibus new species; the ®rst fossil cyphophthalmid. MB.A. 1086 from Bit- terfeld amber, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. 1. Dorso-lateral aspect;