| Literature DB >> 34909219 |
Sonja Wedmann1, Petr Kment2, Luiz Alexandre Campos3, Thomas Hörnschemeyer4.
Abstract
Newly discovered fossil bugs (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) from the Eocene of Messel (Germany) and Green River (North America) exhibit an exaggerated morphology including prominent spiny humeral and anterolateral angles of the pronotum and a spiny lateral abdominal margin. Especially the humeral angles are unique; they consist of expansive, rounded projections with strong spines, which is a rare trait among pentatomids. A hypothesis for the function of this extreme morphology is defence against small vertebrate predators, such as birds or reptiles. The same protuberances also produce a disruptive effect camouflaging the specimen in its environment and provide additional protection. Therefore, the extreme morphology provides primary as well as secondary anti-predator defence. The morphology of Eospinosus peterkulkai gen. et sp. nov. and E. greenriverensis sp. nov. resembles that of Triplatygini, which today occur exclusively in Madagascar, as well as that of Discocephalinae or Cyrtocorinae, which today occur in the Neotropics. Due to a lack of conclusive characters, it cannot be excluded that the fossil species may represent a case of remarkable convergence and are not related to either taxon. Phylogenetic analyses using parsimony as well as Bayesian algorithms confirmed that the new genus is a member of Pentatomidae, but could not solve its phylogenetic relationships within Pentatomidae.Entities:
Keywords: Green River; Hemiptera; Messel; anti-predator–morphology; exaggerated morphology; insects
Year: 2021 PMID: 34909219 PMCID: PMC8652274 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211466
Source DB: PubMed Journal: R Soc Open Sci ISSN: 2054-5703 Impact factor: 2.963
Figure 1Eospinosus peterkulkai sp. nov. and Eospinosus greenriverensis sp. nov. (a,b) Eospinosus peterkulkai sp. nov., holotype, male, SF-MeI 1654. Photo and interpretative drawing of the specimen. Main structures drawn with continuous lines, incomplete or internal structures drawn with dashed lines; 3D structures dotted, (c,d), Eospinosus peterkulkai sp. nov., female, SF-MeI 15483. Photo and colour-coded 3D relief, reconstructed from photogrammetry. Elevated areas orange-red, lower areas green-blue. (e,f), Eospinosus greenriverensis sp. nov., male, holotype UCM 79057. Photo and interpretative drawing of the specimen. Main structures drawn with continuous lines, incomplete or internal structures drawn with dashed lines; 3D structures dotted. All scales 1 mm.
Figure 2Results of phylogenetic analyses. (a) 50% majority rule consensus tree of 432 156 equally parsimonious trees with 246 steps each from PAUP* (hs, tbr, random addition, 1000 replications) with potential autapomorphies (character number above dot, character state below dot). Numbers in bold = percentage of occurrence of node in resulting trees. (b) consensus tree from MrBayes (10 million generations) with posterior probabilities.