(Odonata: Zygoptera) from Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber Daran Zheng, Bo Wang, André Nel, Edmund Jarzembowski, Haichun Zhang, Su-Chin Chang
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Mesostictinae subfam. nov., an archaic group of platystictid damselflies (Odonata: Zygoptera) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber Daran Zheng, Bo Wang, André Nel, Edmund Jarzembowski, Haichun Zhang, Su-Chin Chang To cite this version: Daran Zheng, Bo Wang, André Nel, Edmund Jarzembowski, Haichun Zhang, et al.. Mesosticti- nae subfam. nov., an archaic group of platystictid damselflies (Odonata: Zygoptera) from mid- Cretaceous Burmese amber. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Taylor & Francis, 2019, 17 (1), pp.1-8. 10.1080/14772019.2017.1348395. hal-02054135 HAL Id: hal-02054135 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-02054135 Submitted on 1 Mar 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Mesostictinae subfam. nov., an archaic group of platystictid damselflies (Odonata: Zygoptera) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber Daran Zhenga,b*, Bo Wanga,c, Andre Neld, Edmund A. Jarzembowskia,e, Haichun Zhanga and Su-Chin Changb* a State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of b Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China; Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong c Special Administrative Region, China; Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy d of Sciences, 1, Beichen West Road, Beijing 100101, China; Institut de Systematique, E volution, Biodiversite, ISYEB-UMR 7205-CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universites, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 50, Entomologie, F-75005, Paris, France; eDepartment of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK Odonatans are quite rare in the fossil record compared with the other insects, especially in Cretaceous amber inclusions. The extant family Platystictidae is one of the most diverse Zygoptera, but short of fossil records. In this paper, a new species, Mesosticta davidattenboroughi sp. nov., is described from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, representing the third- known fossil species of Platystictidae. Mesosticta davidattenboroughi sp. nov. has a long IR1 beginning one cell distal of the base of RP2, confirming the previous attribution of Mesosticta Huang, Azar, Cai & Nel, 2015 to Platystictidae. It differs from other species of Mesosticta in having a long IR1 and a basally crossed subdiscoidal cell. The fossil genus Mesosticta shares the diagnostic characters of the modern platystictid genera, viz. a basally recessed ‘CuP’ (shared by all species), a very long IR1 (only in Mesosticta davidattenboroughi sp. nov.), and a specialized subdiscoidal area mostly rhomboidal in shape (only in Mesosticta electronica Zheng, Zhang, Chang & Wang, 2016). Based on the platystictid damselflies from Burmese amber, a new subfamily Mesostictinae subfam. nov. is established. Mesostictinae subfam. nov. represents the first fossil group of modern platystictid damselflies, documenting the appearance of Platystictidae as early as mid-Cretaceous. It differs from modern Platystictidae by the presence of fewer postnodal and postsubnodal crossveins, a short MP, the base of RP2 being nearer to the subnodus and the nodus lying more distally. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6669DBCD-F2EF-4C84-9623-BD33142AD36B Keywords: Platystictidae; Zygoptera; Odonata; Cenomanian; Cretaceous; Burmese amber Introduction Platystictidae were hypothesized to have originated from eastern Africa during the Late Cretaceous, then later Platystictidae (shadowdamsels) currently consist of about migrated to South America, Asia and New Guinea (van 250 extant species in eight genera and four tropical subfa- Tol & Muller€ 2003; van Tol et al. 2009;Sanchez-Herrera milies (Wilson 1997; Van Tol 2005; Van Tol et al. 2009; & Ware 2012). The recently discovered Mesosticta, how- Dow & Orr 2012; Dijkstra et al. 2014; Haber & Wagner ever, puts the appearance of Platystictidae back to at least 2014; Schorr & Paulson 2015; Suhling et al. 2015; Dow the mid-Cretaceous (Zheng et al. 2016a). et al. 2016; Phan & Kompier 2016; Bedjanic et al. 2016), The platystictid damselflies are characterized by a long and two fossil species of the genus Mesosticta Huang, and very slender abdomen, and a unique wing with a Azar, Cai & Nel, 2015 from mid-Cretaceous Burmese basally recessed ‘CuP’ (Fraser 1957; Jarzembowski et al. amber (Huang et al. 2015; Zheng et al. 2016a). The sub- 1998; Huang et al. 2015), a long IR1 and a usually dia- family Palaemnematinae (Palaemnema Selys, 1860) is mond-shaped subdiscoidal cell (Haber & Wagner 2014). confined to central and north-western South America, The platystictid genus Mesosticta (M. burmatica Huang, while Sinostictinae (Sinosticta Wilson, 1997), Platysticti- Azar, Cai & Nel, 2015 and M. electronica Zheng, Zhang, nae (Platysticta Selys, 1860, Ceylonosticta Fraser, 1931) Chang & Wang, 2016) was tentatively attributed to this and Protostictinae (Protosticta Selys, 1885, Drepanosticta family due to a basally recessed CuP-crossing (Huang Laidlaw, 1917, Telosticta Dow & Orr, 2012 and Sulcos- et al. 2015) and the rhomboidal shape of the subdiscoidal ticta van Tol, 2005) are restricted to South-East Asia. triangle (only present in the hindwing of M. electronica; *Corresponding authors. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] 2 Zheng et al. 2016a). Both species, however, do not have a ammonite stratigraphy (Cruickshank & Ko 2003; Ross very long IR1, which is present in all recent platystictid et al. 2010), while it was radiometrically dated at 98.79 § damselflies. In this paper, we describe a new platystictid 0.62 Ma (earliest Cenomanian) based on U-Pb zircon dat- species of Mesosticta from mid-Cretaceous Burmese ing of the volcanoclastic matrix (Shi et al. 2012). The real amber. The new species has a very long IR1, so it con- depositional age of the amber is probably earlier than this firms the previous attribution of Mesosticta to the Platys- radiometric age since the amber shows evidence of rede- tictidae. Based on three species of Mesosticta, a new position (Wang et al. 2015). Here we follow the age given subfamily is established. by Shi et al.(2012), but we treat it as minimal. Geological background Material and methods The piece of amber containing the new damselfly was col- The piece of amber containing the damselfly is yellow and lected in the Hukawng Valley (26 290 N, 96 350 E) of transparent. The damselfly is near the amber surface, and Kachin Province, Myanmar (locality in Kania et al. 2015, well preserved with complete forewings. The abdomen fig. 1). Abundant insect inclusions have been described and hindwings were polished away. Photographs were from Burmese amber (Cruickshank & Ko 2003;Shiet al. taken using a Zeiss Stereo Discovery V16 microscope sys- 2012; Kania et al. 2015), with rare odonatans including tem and Zen software. In most instances, incident and true dragonflies (Sch€adel & Bechly 2016), damsel-drag- transmitted light were used simultaneously. All images onflies (Bechly & Poinar 2013) and damselflies (Poinar are digitally stacked photomicrographic composites of et al. 2010; Huang et al. 2015; Zheng et al. 2016a, b, c, approximately 40 individual focal planes obtained using d). The age of the Burmese amber was considered to be the free software Combine ZP for a better illustration of Late Albian to Cenomanian based on palynology and the three-dimensional structures. The line drawings were Figure 1. Mesosticta davidattenboroughi sp. nov., holotype, NIGP164541, photograph of specimen. Mesostictinae subfam. nov., an archaic group of platystictid damselflies 3 prepared from photographs using image-editing software posterior wing margin; RP1 with slight angle below pter- (CorelDraw X7 and Adobe Photoshop CS6). The speci- ostigmal brace; few postnodal and postsubnodal cross- men is housed in the Nanjing Institute of Geology and veins (less than 10), somewhat aligned; nodus not in very Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS). basal position, at least at 35% of wing length; longitudinal The nomenclature of the dragonfly wing venation used veins RA, RP1, IR1, RP2 and IR2 strongly converging on in this paper is based on the interpretations of Riek (1976) wing apex; Pt one cell long, thickened and fused with and Riek & Kukalova-Peck (1984), as modified by Nel greatly thickened pterostigmal part of RA as U-shaped et al.(1993) and Bechly (1996). The phylogeny of extant structure. Zygoptera followed in the present work is based on Dijk- stra et al.(2014), while the generic characters of Meso- Mesosticta Huang, Azar, Cai & Nel, 2015 sticta are after Zheng et al.(2016a). Wing abbreviations are as follows: AA, anal anterior; AP, anal posterior; Arc, Type species. Mesosticta burmatica Huang, Azar, Cai & arculus; Ax, primary antenodal crossvein; Cr, nodal Nel, 2015. crossvein; CuA, cubitus anterior; CuP, cubitus posterior; Included species. Mesosticta electronica Zheng, Zhang, DC, discoidal cell; IR, intercalary radial vein; MA, Chang & Wang, 2016; Mesosticta davidattenboroughi sp. median anterior; MP, median posterior; N, nodus; Pt,