<strong><em>Cretonthophilus</em> <em>tuberculatus</em>, a remarkable new genus and species of hister beetle (Coleoptera: Histeridae) from Cretaceous Burmese amber</strong>

Preservation of three-dimensional anatomy in phosphatized fossil arthropods enriches evolutionary inference

“…We compiled a character set comprising 41 characters ( Source code 1 ) of internal and external morphology visible in one or more specimens of O. intermedius , as visualized following X-ray microtomography. We scored these characters for a set of 29 of the 39 currently described species in the genus Onthophilus ( Mazur, 2011 ), as well as seven outgroup Onthophilinae (including the recently described Cretaceous Cretonthophilus tuberculatus ( Caterino et al, 2015 ). Most were scored from direct examination of specimens.…”

An early and mysterious histerid inquiline from Cretaceous Burmese amber (Coleoptera, Histeridae)

“…Poinar and Brown (2009) described the first of these, Pantostictus burmanicus , although the specimens were rather poor and the placement of this species remains unclear. Caterino et al (2015) described the much better preserved Cretonthophilus tuberculatus from the same deposits, hypothesizing placement in Onthophilinae. Here we describe a new genus and species of fossil histerid from the same Burmese amber deposits (with a presumed age of about 99 MYBP, Shi et al 2012), which offers further insight into the family’s earliest history.…”

“…Phylogenetic relationships among extant taxa have been difficult to resolve (Caterino and Vogler 2002, McKenna et al 2015), and the family’s fossil record is sparse and poorly documented (Chatzimanolis et al 2006, Caterino et al 2015). This uncertainty has hindered studies of ecomorphological evolution, which has followed several distinct and repeated trajectories in the family (Caterino and Vogler 2002).…”

Cretohisteridae, a new beetle family from the Early Cretaceous of China, and its implications for the early evolution of the basal group of Histeroidea (Coleoptera)

“…Poinar & Brown () suggested semi‐aquatic habits for the Cretaceous Pantostictus burmanicus , one of the earliest true Histeridae, but this was based on interpretation of a single minor character (ventral tarsal setae). The comparably old Cretonthophilus tuberculatus (Caterino et al ., ) and Amplectister tenax (Caterino & Maddison, ), all from ∼99 Ma Burmese amber, exhibit very different morphologies, and the latter seem to indicate that inquilinism arose very early in histerid evolution. It is becoming further apparent that none of these represents the family's earliest evolution, and further new fossil taxa awaiting description (Zhou et al ., unpublished data) show that Histeridae was very diverse and that most of the subfamilies were already established at the Middle Cretaceous.…”

“…The fossil record of Histeroidea is sparse, and so far three Burmese amber (∼99 Ma) inclusions of Histeridae constitute the oldest records of the superfamily (Poinar & Brown, ; Caterino et al ., ; Caterino & Maddison, ). Several fossil Histeridae, classified in Trypanaeinae, Saprininae and Histerinae, have been reported from various younger deposits (see Caterino et al ., ), but only Trypanaeus hispaniolus Chatzimanolis et al . () from Dominican amber has been adequately described.…”