The first mainland European Mesozoic click-beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) revealed by X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning of an Upper Cretaceous amber from Hungary.

ABSTRACT: Fossil bioinclusions in amber are invaluable source of information on the past evolution and diversity of various organisms, as well as on the paleoecosystems in general. The click-beetles, Elateridae, which originated and greatly diversified during the Mesozoic, are mostly known from the adpression-like fossils, and their diversity in the Cretaceous ambers is only poorly documented. In this study, we describe a new click-beetle based on an incomplete inclusion in ajkaite, an Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) amber from the Ajka Coal Formation from Hungary. We used X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning to reconstruct its morphology because it is deposited in an opaque piece of amber. Our results suggest that the newly described Ajkaelater merkli gen. et sp. nov. belongs to subfamily Elaterin

SUBMITTER: Szabo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8742027 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature