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Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)
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. Especial...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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The Royal Society
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8652274/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34909219 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211466 |
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author | Wedmann, Sonja Kment, Petr Campos, Luiz Alexandre Hörnschemeyer, Thomas |
author_facet | Wedmann, Sonja Kment, Petr Campos, Luiz Alexandre Hörnschemeyer, Thomas |
author_sort | Wedmann, Sonja |
collection | PubMed |
description | 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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8652274 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86522742021-12-13 Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) Wedmann, Sonja Kment, Petr Campos, Luiz Alexandre Hörnschemeyer, Thomas R Soc Open Sci Organismal and Evolutionary Biology 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. The Royal Society 2021-12-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8652274/ /pubmed/34909219 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211466 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Wedmann, Sonja Kment, Petr Campos, Luiz Alexandre Hörnschemeyer, Thomas Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) |
title | Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) |
title_full | Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) |
title_fullStr | Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) |
title_full_unstemmed | Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) |
title_short | Bizarre morphology in extinct Eocene bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) |
title_sort | bizarre morphology in extinct eocene bugs (heteroptera: pentatomidae) |
topic | Organismal and Evolutionary Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8652274/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34909219 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211466 |
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