Cretaceous African life captured in amber

Abstract

Amber is of great paleontological importance because it preserves a diverse array of organisms and associated remains from different habitats in and close to the amber-producing forests. Therefore, the discovery of amber inclusions is important not only for tracing the evolutionary history of lineages with otherwise poor fossil records, but also for elucidating the composition, diversity, and ecology of terrestrial paleoecosystems. Here, we report a unique find of African amber with inclusions, from the Cretaceous of Ethiopia. Ancient arthropods belonging to the ants, wasps, thrips, zorapterans, and spiders are the earliest African records of these ecologically important groups and constitute significant discoveries providing insight into the temporal and geographical origins of these lineages. Together with diverse microscopic inclusions, these findings reveal the interactions of plants, fungi and arthropods during an epoch of major change in terrestrial ecosystems, which was caused by the initial radiation of the angiosperms. Because of its age, paleogeographic location and the exceptional preservation of the inclusions, this fossil resin broadens our understanding of the ecology of Cretaceous woodlands.Arachnida | Ethiopia | Hexapoda | microorganisms | paleoecology

New ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Dolichoderinae) from Canadian Late Cretaceous amber

“…In the Cretaceous, the only other record of Dolichoderinae stems from putatively Late Cenomanian Ethiopian amber (Schmidt et al 2010, LaPolla et al 2013. These records indicate that the subfamily was already widespread in the Cretaceous, with representatives in both Gondwana and western Laurentia.…”

“…As an isolated record of Dolichoderinae within the Mesozoic, the specimen has not been viewed as definitive evidence for the presence of the subfamily by all authors. With the description of another dolichoderine from Canadian amber herein, and the report of one definitive dolichoderine awaiting description from Ethiopian (Late Cenomanian) amber (Schmidt et al 2010, LaPolla et al 2013, it seems much more likely that Dlussky (1999) was correct in his placement of Eotapinoma.…”

“…Within most Cretaceous amber deposits, ants are a minor component of the assemblage. The greatest abundance of ants reported to date has stemmed from Ethiopian amber (likely Cenomanian in age, 3% of inclusions), but this is almost certainly a sampling artifact, as only 30 arthropod inclusions have been reported from the site (Schmidt et al 2010). All of the larger and more extensively studied Cretaceous assemblages have been characterized by a low percent abundance of formicids, with the Charentese (Albian-Cenomanian) and Baikura (Late Cretaceous) ambers containing 1.2% and 1.6% ants, respectively, and other deposits containing less than 1% formicids: Burmese amber (Early Cenomanian, 0.2%), New Jersey amber (Turonian, 0.05%), Yantardahk, Siberian amber (Santonian, 0.001%), Canadian amber (Campanian, 0.03%) (Dlussky 1975, Rasnitsyn & Kulicka 1990, Grimaldi & Nascimbene 2010, McKellar & Engel 2012, LaPolla et al 2013, and references therein).…”

Late Cretaceous Amber in Texas: Chemical Characterization and Paleoenvironment

“…Towards middle North America, the amber deposit found in Ellsworth County, Kansas was assigned to the Cenomanian (Langenheim et al 1965). In other geographical areas of the world the Texas amber is contemporaneous with Cenomanian deposits in Azerbaijan, Agapa, Taymir Peninsula, Russia (Cenomanian), Sarthe, France (Cenomanian), Timmerdyakh, Yakutia, Russia (Cenomanian-Turonian), Eastern Taymir, Russia (Albian to Cenomanian) (Martinez-Delclos et al 2004), Alem Ketema, Ethiopia (Cenomanian) (Schmidt et al 2010), Burmese amber (Early Cenomanian) (Ross et al 2010), Charentese amber, France (Albian-Early Cenomanian) (Perrichot et al 2007). …”

Reply to Comment of Encinas et al. (2014) on: ‘Evidence for an Early-Middle Miocene age of the Navidad Formation (central Chile): Paleontological, climatic and tectonic implications’ of Gutiérrez et al. (2013, Andean Geology 40 (1): 66-78).

“…1). Trichogrammatidae have been found as fossils in amber from the Early Cretaceous to the Pleistocene (Schmidt et al, 2010; Fig. 4).…”