Cockroaches Probably Cleaned Up after Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs undoubtedly produced huge quantities of excrements. But who cleaned up after them? Dung beetles and flies with rapid development were rare during most of the Mesozoic. Candidates for these duties are extinct cockroaches (Blattulidae), whose temporal range is associated with herbivorous dinosaurs. An opportunity to test this hypothesis arises from coprolites to some extent extruded from an immature cockroach preserved in the amber of Lebanon, studied using synchrotron X-ray microtomography. 1.06% of their volume is filled by particles of wood with smooth edges, in which size distribution directly supports their external pre-digestion. Because fungal pre-processing can be excluded based on the presence of large particles (combined with small total amount of wood) and absence of damages on wood, the likely source of wood are herbivore feces. Smaller particles were broken down biochemically in the cockroach hind gut, which indicates that the recent lignin-decomposing termite and cockroach endosymbionts might have been transferred to the cockroach gut upon feeding on dinosaur feces

Blattes de l’ambre albien français d’Archingeay (Insecta, Blattida)

Le but de cet article est d’évaluer la composition taxonomique et la diversité du plus riche assemblage de blattes fossiles dans l’ambre du Mésozoïque, et de les comparer avec celles des sédiments mésozoïques. L’assemblage étudié provient du gisement Albien terminal (Crétacé inférieur) d’Archingeay-Les Nouillers, dans le Sud-Ouest de la France. Deux blattes fossilisées dans un morceau d’ambre opaque sont reconstruites pour la première fois de façon très détaillée au moyen de l’imagerie en contraste de phase par rayonnement X synchrotron, une technique développée récemment pour analyser les inclusions de l’ambre. Les Blattulidae Vishniakova, 1982, représentés ici par Batola nikolai n. gen., n. sp., et Globula lake n. gen., n. sp., sont numériquement dominants comme dans le registre sédimentaire ; les Liberiblattinidae Vršanský, 2002, représentés par Leptolythica vincenti n. gen., n. sp., et les Mesoblattinidae Handlirsch, 1906, représentés par Sivis odpo n. gen., n. sp., sont sub-dominants ; une nouvelle famille, Eadiidae n. fam., avec Eadia aidae n. gen., n. sp., est présente uniquement dans l’ambre d’Archingeay et l’ambre contemporain du Myanmar ; et une nouvelle famille, non décrite ici, est endémique de ce gisement français. Les Caloblattinidae Vršanský &amp; Ansorge, 2000, généralement communs dans les assemblages sédimentaires du Mésozoïque supérieur, sont rares ici du fait de leur grande taille et donc d’un faible potentiel de piégeage dans la résine. L’assemblage étudié ici diffère considérablement des assemblages standards d’empreintes fossiles du Crétacé inférieur. Cependant, malgré une composition taxonomique différente au niveau des genres, et du fait de conditions de préservation particulières, cette association dans l’ambre montre une diversité spécifique comparable, assez faible.The aim of the present paper is to evaluate the taxonomic composition and diversity of the richest fossil cockroach assemblage from Mesozoic amber and to compare them with those of the Mesozoic sedimentary record. The studied assemblage originated from the Late Albian (Early Cretaceous) deposit of Archingeay-Les Nouillers in southwestern France. Phase-contrast X-ray synchrotron imaging, a technique recently developed for analysing amber inclusions, is used here for the first time to reconstruct very detailed views of two cockroach specimens fossilised in a piece of opaque amber. The Blattulidae Vishniakova, 1982, here represented by Batola nikolai n. gen., n. sp. and Globula lake n. gen., n. sp. were, analogically as in sedimentary record, dominant; Liberiblattinidae Vršanský, 2002, represented by Leptolythica vincenti n. gen., n. sp.; and Mesoblattinidae Handlirsch, 1906, represented by Sivis odpo n. gen., n. sp. were subdominant; the new family Eadiidae n. fam., with Eadia aidae n. gen., n. sp. occurs only in the present and Myanmar ambers; and a new, here not described family is yet only indigenous to this locality. Caloblattinidae Vršanský &amp; Ansorge, 2000 are rare apparently due to their large size and thus low resin-burial potential, in spite of their fairly common occurrence in the Late Mesozoic assemblages of rock fossil. The present assemblage considerably differs from the standard conservative worldwide Early Cretaceous assemblages of imprint fossils. In spite of alternative taxonomic composition at generic level, however, and due to the particular burial conditions in amber, this association is of a comparable, rather low, specific diversity.</p

Cyber security and the international law

The Cyber security topic becomes a complex, interdisciplinary and multidimensional problem in the contemporary theory and practice of the International Law

New genus and species of cavernicolous cockroach (Blattaria, Nocticolidae) from Vietnam

The new, small cavernicolous species Helmablatta louisrothi gen. et sp. n. (Nocticolidae) from the Tan-Phu cave (Vietnam) is one of the most morphologically interesting cockroaches. The extremely modified upstanding tergal gland composite from three tergites and may serve for gripping the female head during copulation. This presumption is supported by the presence of a central big hook on tergite 8. Furthermore, both wing pairs are uncommonly adapted to help releasing sex pheromones without raising the wings. Histone 3 DNA-based maximum likelihood analyses indicate a recent origin and close phylogenetic relationship between Nocticola spp. and Helmablatta sp.—consistent with the Quaternary age of the source lava tubes

Paleocene origin of the cockroach families Blaberidae and Corydiidae: Evidence from Amur River region of Russia

Vršanský, Peter, Vidlička, Ľubomír, Barna, Peter, Bugdaeva, Eugenia, Markevich, Valentina (2013): Paleocene origin of the cockroach families Blaberidae and Corydiidae: Evidence from Amur River region of Russia. Zootaxa 3635 (2): 117-126, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3635.2.

Dinosaur-age wood decomposing cockroach with coprolite and its ecological context.

<p><b>A)</b> wood fragment no. 123 (coprolite no. 3), volume 23077 µm³ (TRC- parenchymatous tangential ray cells); <b>B)</b> Lebanese amber (Blattulidae 1094A-I), length (head to leg end): 3.8 mm; <b>C)</b> a virtual synchrotron section (∼1.2 mm) through coprolite no. 3, wood particles are pale; <b>D)</b> percentual representation of volume of the respective wood particles; <b>E)</b> distribution analysis of simple particle count of 280 wood fragments present in all five coprolites plotted over the fragment size; <b>F)</b> Ratios of the Blattulidae and “<i>Voltziablatta</i>”- group – families that replaced each other during the Triassic (interrupted arrow) – to all cockroaches, plotted over the timescale (in Ma). The origin and extinction of dinosaurs are pointed with arrows. “N in %” means percentual representation of number of specimens, “spp in %” is a percentual representation of species. Original data.</p

Distribuition of living dung-feeding cockroaches supporting their common and cosmopolitan distribution [41], exclusively in dark (nocturnal, cave or under dung) environments.

<p>Feeding of diverse cockroaches on bird excrements and also facultative feeding on reptile and amphibian dungs is apparent. Based on Bell et al. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0080560#pone.0080560-Bell1" target="_blank">[12]</a>, Christoffersen & De Assis <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0080560#pone.0080560-Christoffersen1" target="_blank">[49]</a> and Roth & Willis <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0080560#pone.0080560-Roth3" target="_blank">[115]</a>.</p