The Moss Macromitrium Richardii (Orthotrichaceae) with Sporophyte and Calyptra Enclosed in Hymenaea Resin from the Dominican Republic

Abstract Dominican amber is an important source for Early Miocene bryophytes. We report the moss Macromitrium richardii Schwägr., an extant representative of the Orthotrichaceae, from the Dominican amber collection of the American Museum of Natural History. This species is currently a widespread Neotropical epiphyte. The specimen includes several gametophytes and sporophytes, and represents the first fossil record of Orthotrichaceae. Alongside the Macromitrium shoots we observed several fragments of the liverworts Cheilolejeunea antiqua and Frullania sp. The unusual thermal behavior of the resin sample initially led to doubts about the Miocene age of the specimen, but chemical analyses of the Hymenaea resin provides evidence that the specimen represents a highly oxidized sample of Miocene Dominican amber rather than an artificially thermally-treated subfossil resin (copal). Our inclusion demonstrates the exceptional preservation potential of tree resin, but our observations also suggest that provenance (including any possibility that a modern resin has been thermally treated to make it appear older) should be scrutinized when single pieces with atypical thermal behavior and exceptionally well-preserved extant morphotypes come to light

Ticks parasitised feathered dinosaurs as revealed by Cretaceous amber assemblages

Ticks are currently among the most prevalent blood-feeding ectoparasites, but their feeding habits and hosts in deep time have long remained speculative. Here, we report direct and indirect evidence in 99 million-year-old Cretaceous amber showing that hard ticks and ticks of the extinct new family Deinocrotonidae fed on blood from feathered dinosaurs, non-avialan or avialan excluding crown-group birds. A dagger Cornupalpatum burmanicum hard tick is entangled in a pennaceous feather. Two deinocrotonids described as dagger Deinocroton draculi gen. et sp. nov. have specialised setae from dermestid beetle larvae (hastisetae) attached to their bodies, likely indicating cohabitation in a feathered dinosaur nest. A third conspecific specimen is blood-engorged, its anatomical features suggesting that deinocrotonids fed rapidly to engorgement and had multiple gonotrophic cycles. These findings provide insight into early tick evolution and ecology, and shed light on poorly known arthropod-vertebrate interactions and potential disease transmission during the Mesozoic

Ticks parasitised feathered dinosaurs as revealed by Cretaceous amber assemblages

Ticks are currently among the most prevalent blood-feeding ectoparasites, but their feeding habits and hosts in deep time have long remained speculative. Here, we report direct and indirect evidence in 99 million-year-old Cretaceous amber showing that hard ticks and ticks of the extinct new family Deinocrotonidae fed on blood from feathered dinosaurs, non-avialan or avialan excluding crown-group birds. A dagger Cornupalpatum burmanicum hard tick is entangled in a pennaceous feather. Two deinocrotonids described as dagger Deinocroton draculi gen. et sp. nov. have specialised setae from dermestid beetle larvae (hastisetae) attached to their bodies, likely indicating cohabitation in a feathered dinosaur nest. A third conspecific specimen is blood-engorged, its anatomical features suggesting that deinocrotonids fed rapidly to engorgement and had multiple gonotrophic cycles. These findings provide insight into early tick evolution and ecology, and shed light on poorly known arthropod-vertebrate interactions and potential disease transmission during the Mesozoic

<scp>ReSurveyEurope</scp>: A database of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe

AbstractAimsWe introduce ReSurveyEurope — a new data source of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe, compiled by a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. We describe the scope of this initiative, provide an overview of currently available data, governance, data contribution rules, and accessibility. In addition, we outline further steps, including potential research questions.ResultsReSurveyEurope includes resurveyed vegetation plots from all habitats. Version 1.0 of ReSurveyEurope contains 283,135 observations (i.e., individual surveys of each plot) from 79,190 plots sampled in 449 independent resurvey projects. Of these, 62,139 (78%) are permanent plots, that is, marked in situ, or located with GPS, which allow for high spatial accuracy in resurvey. The remaining 17,051 (22%) plots are from studies in which plots from the initial survey could not be exactly relocated. Four data sets, which together account for 28,470 (36%) plots, provide only presence/absence information on plant species, while the remaining 50,720 (64%) plots contain abundance information (e.g., percentage cover or cover–abundance classes such as variants of the Braun‐Blanquet scale). The oldest plots were sampled in 1911 in the Swiss Alps, while most plots were sampled between 1950 and 2020.ConclusionsReSurveyEurope is a new resource to address a wide range of research questions on fine‐scale changes in European vegetation. The initiative is devoted to an inclusive and transparent governance and data usage approach, based on slightly adapted rules of the well‐established European Vegetation Archive (EVA). ReSurveyEurope data are ready for use, and proposals for analyses of the data set can be submitted at any time to the coordinators. Still, further data contributions are highly welcome.</jats:sec

Burmese amber

72 p. : ill., map ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-72).Amber from Kachin, northern Burma, has been used in China for at least a millennium for carving decorative objects, but the only scientific collection of inclusion fossils, at the Natural History Museum, London (NHML), was made approximately 90 years ago. Age of the material was ambiguous, but probably Cretaceous. Numerous new records and taxa occur in this amber, based on newly excavated material in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) containing 3100 organisms. Without having all groups studied, significant new records and taxa thus far include the following (a † refers to extinct taxa): For Plants: An angiosperm flower (only the third in Cretaceous amber), spores and apparent sporangia of an unusual but common fungus, hepatophyte thalli and an archegoniophore of Marchantiaceae, and leafy shoots of Metasequoia (Coniferae). Metasequoia is possibly the source of the amber. For Animals: Mermithidae and other Nematoda; the oldest ixodid tick (a larval Amblyomma); bird feathers; and the only Mesozoic record of the Onychophora ('velvet' worms), described as †Cretoperipatus burmiticus, n. gen., n. sp. (Peripatidae). Poinar's classification of the Onychophora is substantially revised. Still largely unstudied, the fauna of mites (Acari) and spiders (Araneae) appears to be the most diverse ones known for the Mesozoic. For Insecta: Odonata indet. (wing fragment); Plecoptera indet.; new genera of Dermaptera, Embiidina, and Zoraptera (the latter two as the only definitive Mesozoic fossils of their orders). Within Hemiptera, there are primitive new genera in the Aradidae, Hydrometridae, Piesmatidae, Schizopteridae, and Cimicomorpha (Heteroptera), as well as in †Tajmyraphididae (Aphidoidea), and †Protopsyllidiidae. An adult snakefly (Raphidioptera: †Mesoraphidiidae) is the smallest species in the order, and new genera occur in the Neuroptera: Coniopterygidae, Berothidae, and Psychopsidae, as well as larvae of apparent Nevrorthidae. Coleoptera are largely unstudied, but are probably the most diverse assemblage known from the Cretaceous, particularly for Staphylinidae. An adult lymexylid, the most primitive species of Atractocerus, is the first Mesozoic record of the family. In Hymenoptera there are primitive ants (Formicidae: Ponerinae n. gen., and †Sphecomyrma n.sp (Sphecomyrminae)), the oldest record of the Pompilidae, and significant new records of †Serphitidae and †Stigmaphronidae, among others. Diptera are the most diverse and abundant, with the oldest definitive Blephariceridae and mosquito (Culicidae), as well as new genera in the Acroceridae, Bibionidae, Empidoidea; a new genus near the enigmatic genus Valeseguya, and an unusual new genus in the †Archizelmiridae. †Chimeromyia (Diptera: Eremoneura), known previously in ambers from the Lower Cretaceous, is also represented. The stratigraphic distribution of exclusively Mesozoic arthropods in Burmese amber is reviewed, which indicates a probable Turonian-Cenomanian age of this material (90-100 Ma). Paleofaunal differences between the NHML and AMNH collections are discussed, as is the distinct tropical nature of the original biota. Burmese amber probably harbors the most diverse biota in amber from the Cretaceous, and one of the most diverse Mesozoic microbiotas now known

Spiloconis glaesaria Meinander

Spiloconis glaesaria Meinander Figures 1A, B; 2B; 4A Spiloconis glaesaria Meinander, 1998: 33. Engel and Grimaldi, 2007: 19. DIAGNOSIS: Oral margin in frontal view broad (width 0.7× the distance between compound eyes), much of frontal portion of head membranous/lightly sclerotized, most of it covered with fine setulae; dorsal margin of head barely protruding (cf. Spiloconis oediloma Engel and Grimaldi); wing with r-rs proximal to fork of R 2+3 –R 4+5 (i.e., r-rs connected to Rs); L/W basal discal cell 3.2; antenna with 21–22 flagellomeres (23–24 antennomeres), size of basal flagellomere nearly equal to that of other flagellomeres. TYPE AND OTHER MATERIAL: Known only from Dominican amber. Holotype, AMNH DR14-1094, in clear yellow amber 9 × 4 × 5 mm in size, embedded in EpoTek 301 resin, 12 × 3 × 5 mm. The amber contains many bubbles, and the holotype is best observed ventrally. Meinander (1988) stated that the body of the specimen was covered with “wax” (a fine layer of which indeed coats most modern dustywings), but the fossil is actually covered with a milky froth, a preservational artifact common among inclusions in amber. Another specimen was reported (AMNH DR14-1094) with a photograph, in Engel and Grimaldi (2007). It is a wellpreserved female in a small, clear yellow square of amber, 4 × 4 × 1.5 mm.Published as part of Grimaldi, David, Engel, Michael S., Nascimbene, Paul c. & Singh, Hukam, 2013, Coniopterygidae (Neuroptera: Aleuropteryginae) in amber from the Eocene of India and the Miocene of Hispaniola, pp. 1-20 in American Museum Novitates 2013 (3770) on page 4, DOI: 10.1206/3770.2, http://zenodo.org/record/536189

Deterioration of amber.

19 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 26 cm.The deterioration of fossil resins (crazing, cracking, and darkening) was investigated by comparing the effects of one year of accelerated aging--specifically intensive exposure to light, heat, and fluctuating humidity, both individually and in combination--on samples from several natural resin deposits. These included two Cretaceous ambers (from Myanmar (Burma) and central New Jersey), two Tertiary ambers (from the Baltic and the Dominican Republic), and Holocene copal from Zanzibar. The five resins were chosen for their disparate ages and botanical origins (and thus chemical and physical properties), as well as their paleontological significance. In all cases, pronounced deterioration occurred under combined exposure to light and fluctuating humidity, based on surface crazing and a decrease in absorbance of light in the UV region (360-400 nm). While crazing did not visibly occur in cases of fluctuating humidity in dark conditions, or UV exposure alone, spectrophotometric evidence indicates that some deterioration did take place. Yellowing after exposure to elevated temperatures occurred in all samples tested, with the exception of Burmese amber. All four true ambers exhibited a decrease in UV absorbance after exposure to heat (while copal actually showed an increase). The samples from the five deposits represent three chemical subclasses of fossil resins, and each of the resins reacted differently to the various aging conditions, with New Jersey amber particularly unstable. Based on these results, amber collections should be stored in an environment with stable humidity, relatively low heat, and minimal exposure to light. Anoxic sealing and storage, and particularly embedding amber samples in a high-grade epoxy, may be beneficial, and further investigation is indicated