Amber from western Amazonia reveals Neotropical diversity during the middle Miocene

Antoine, Pierre; Franceschi, Darío De; Flynn, John J.; Nel, André; Baby, Patrice; Benammi, Mouloud; Calderón, Ysabel; Espurt, Nicolás; Goswami, Anjali; Salas-Gismondi, Rodolfo

doi:10.1073/pnas.0605801103

Cited by 65 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…First, work on estimating the time of origin of groups that may represent pre-Oligocene relicts should be continued to confirm or falsify the Darwinian nature of New Caledonia. Second, fossil diversity for many groups, including insects, must be better studied, as it can shed light on past diversity and ecosystem history (Antoine et al 2006). In this regard, some studies have revealed a recently extinct large vertebrate fauna, showing that generalizations based only on extant faunas can sometimes be misleading (Gaffney et al 1984;Balouet & Buffetaut 1987;Balouet & Olson 1989).…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Caledonia: a very old Darwinian island?

Grandcolas

Murienne

Robillard

et al. 2008

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

268

289

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

New Caledonia has generally been considered a continental island, the biota of which largely dates back to Gondwanan times owing to its geological origin and the presence of phylogenetic relicts. This view is contradicted by geological evidence indicating long Palaeocene and Eocene submersions and by recent biogeographic and phylogenetic studies, with molecular or geophysical dating placing the biota no older than the Oligocene. Phylogenetic relicts do not provide conclusive information in this respect, as their presence cannot be explained by simple hypotheses but requires assumption of many ad hoc extinction events. The implication of this new scenario is that all the New Caledonian biota colonized the island since 37 Ma Local richness can be explained by local radiation and adaptation after colonization but also by many dispersal events, often repeated within the same groups of organisms. Local microendemism is another remarkable feature of the biota. It seems to be related to recent speciation mediated by climate, orography, soil type and perhaps unbalanced biotic interactions created by colonization disharmonies. New Caledonia must be considered as a very old Darwinian island, a concept that offers many more fascinating opportunities of study.

show abstract

Section: Conclusion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Caledonia: a very old Darwinian island?

Grandcolas

Murienne

Robillard

et al. 2008

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

268

289

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ten million years later, just prior to establishment of the transcontinental Amazon River drainage, this inland ecosystem attained huge size (more than 1 million km 2 ) and extreme complexity with multiple environments, such as lakes, embayments, swamps and rivers that drained towards the Caribbean [2,3]. The exceptional depositional and fossil record of the Pebas/Solimões Formations around the Peruvian -Colombian-Brazilian junction permits detailed reconstructions of these Miocene palaeoenvironments and their distinctive biotas [2,[4][5][6][7][8]. Aquatic invertebrates (ostracods and molluscs) are extremely abundant and diverse within those deposits [2,4,[9][10][11],…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Miocene hyperdiverse crocodylian community reveals peculiar trophic dynamics in proto-Amazonian mega-wetlands

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Amazonia contains one of the world's richest biotas, but origins of this diversity remain obscure. Onset of the Amazon River drainage at approximately 10.5 Ma represented a major shift in Neotropical ecosystems, and proto-Amazonian biotas just prior to this pivotal episode are integral to understanding origins of Amazonian biodiversity, yet vertebrate fossil evidence is extraordinarily rare. Two new species-rich bonebeds from late Middle Miocene proto-Amazonian deposits of northeastern Peru document the same hyperdiverse assemblage of seven co-occurring crocodylian species. Besides the large-bodied Purussaurus and Mourasuchus , all other crocodylians are new taxa, including a stem caiman— Gnatusuchus pebasensis —bearing a massive shovel-shaped mandible, procumbent anterior and globular posterior teeth, and a mammal-like diastema. This unusual species is an extreme exemplar of a radiation of small caimans with crushing dentitions recording peculiar feeding strategies correlated with a peak in proto-Amazonian molluscan diversity and abundance. These faunas evolved within dysoxic marshes and swamps of the long-lived Pebas Mega-Wetland System and declined with inception of the transcontinental Amazon drainage, favouring diversification of longirostrine crocodylians and more modern generalist-feeding caimans. The rise and demise of distinctive, highly productive aquatic ecosystems substantially influenced evolution of Amazonian biodiversity hotspots of crocodylians and other organisms throughout the Neogene.

show abstract

“…Deposits of fossil resins are therefore considered exceptional Lagerstätten (2) that provide important data on the paleoecology of Triassic to Neogene forests (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). The presence of marine organisms in tree resin, however, seemed highly unlikely, and the absence of marine inclusions, which could serve as index fossils for dating of amber, had been emphasized in previous literature (6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for marine microfossils from amber

Girard

Schmidt

Martin

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Amber usually contains inclusions of terrestrial and rarely limnetic organisms that were embedded in the places were they lived in the amber forests. Therefore, it has been supposed that amber could not have preserved marine organisms. Here, we report the discovery amber-preserved marine microfossils. Diverse marine diatoms as well as radiolarians, sponge spicules, a foraminifer, and a spine of a larval echinoderm were found in Late Albian and Early Cenomanian amber samples of southwestern France. The highly fossiliferous resin samples solidified Ϸ100 million years ago on the floor of coastal mixed forests dominated by conifers. The amber forests of southwestern France grew directly along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and were influenced by the nearby sea: shells and remnants of marine organisms were probably introduced by wind, spray, or high tide from the beach or the sea onto the resin flows.Cretaceous ͉ palaeoecology ͉ taphonomy ͉ fossil resin ͉ SW France

show abstract

Amber from western Amazonia reveals Neotropical diversity during the middle Miocene

Cited by 65 publications

References 23 publications

New Caledonia: a very old Darwinian island?

New Caledonia: a very old Darwinian island?

A Miocene hyperdiverse crocodylian community reveals peculiar trophic dynamics in proto-Amazonian mega-wetlands

Evidence for marine microfossils from amber

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About