A new robber fly from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Crato Formation of NE Brazil (Insecta: Diptera: Asilidae)

Lamas, Carlos José Einicker; Sampronha, Stephanie; Ribeiro, Guilherme Cunha

doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.105114

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite being the dominant group of insects in many Mesozoic deposits (Kalugina, 1980; Kalugina and Kovalev, 1985; Jell and Duncan, 1986; Han et al., 2019), dipterans are poorly represented and rare in the Lower Cretaceous beds of the fossil‐rich Crato Formation (an important Gondwanan Konservat‐Lagerstätten; Martill et al, 2007; Moura‐Júnior et al., 2018)—accounting for merely 4% of the described species diversity of the palaeoentomofauna (Ribeiro et al., 2021). Recent studies have considerably increased our knowledge of the fly diversity of the Crato Formation, not only for the lower dipteran clades (Ribeiro and Lukashevich, 2014; Ribeiro et al., 2015, 2021; Lukashevich et al., 2021), but also for brachycerans (Carmo et al., 2022; Lamas et al., 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The oldest Gondwanan fossil of Leiinae (Diptera, Mycetophilidae): Phylogenetic and evolutionary implications

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A fossil Mycetophilidae from the Aptian Crato Formation-Cretomanota gondwanica gen. nov., sp. nov.-is described, which is the first mycetophilid from the Crato Formation and corresponds to the oldest known fossil leiine and only the second Gondwanan fossil mycetophilid described so far. Cretomanota gondwanica and both species of Alavamanota Blagoderov and Arillo were added as terminals to the data matrix of a general phylogenetic analysis of the Mycetophilidae, and both fit into the Leiinae. Alavamanota is monophyletic, sister to the clade composed by Cretomanota and the extant genus Manota Williston. The biology of the extant members of this fungivorous family corroborates the reconstruction of the Crato palaeoenvironment as including woodlands with humid habitats and microhabitats. The presence of a Cretaceous member of the tribe Manotini at low latitudes in South America reinforces the hypothesis that the clade with all manotines except Leiella Edwards corresponds to a Lower Cretaceous offshoot from a group in southern Gondwana expanding its distribution to more northern areas into the Gondwana and into Laurasia.

show abstract