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Journal of Paleontology

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Description of Neoliodes dominicus n. sp. (Acari, Oribatida) from Dominican Amber, Aided by Synchrotron X-ray Microtomography

¹ Universität Tübingen, Zoologisches Institut, Abteilung für Evolutionsbiologie der Invertebraten, Auf der Morgenstelle 28E; 72076 Tübingen, Germany, <heethoff@gmx.de>
² Institute for Synchrotron Radiation, ANKA, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany, <helfen@esrf.fr>
³ State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse 13210, <ranorton@esf.edu>

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

	INTRODUCTION

 
THE NEARLY ubiquitous mite suborder Oribatida, which comprises mostly mycophages and saprophages in organic soil horizons, has a long geological history. Early derivative taxa are known from middle and late Devonian deposits (Norton et al., 1988; Subías and Arillo, 2002) and members of the highly derived cohort Brachypylina have existed since the Jurassic (Krivolutsky and Krasilov, 1977, Selden et al., 2008). The group is commonly represented as inclusion-fossils in amber, with about 100 species known worldwide. Except for four Cretaceous fossils from Siberia (Bulanova-Zachvatkina, 1974; Krivolutsky and Ryabinin, 1976) and Spain (Arillo and Subías, 2000, 2002), the named amber species are of Tertiary age. The majority of these have been discovered in the Priabonian (middle Eocene) Baltic amber deposits of northern Europe (Labandeira et al., 1997; Norton, 2006).

Oribatid mite fossils are relatively common in Neotropical amber, but few have been studied in detail. Named species include only the eight described from Aquitanian (early Miocene) amber in Chiapas, Mexico (Woolley, 1971), but Norton and Poinar (1993) reported 11 unnamed species from variously dated Dominican amber (see below). These included two members of the widespread and commonly arboreal family Neoliodidae Sellnick, 1928, and one each in the genera Teleioliodes Grandjean, 1934 and Neoliodes Berlese, 1888. Our objective is to describe and name the latter species based on two adult specimens, incorporating images from synchrotron X-ray microtomography. It is the first oribatid mite species described from Dominican amber.

Neoliodes is the most diverse of the four genera of Neoliodidae, comprising about 40 extant species (Subías, 2004). The distribution of most species is quite limited, but the genus is cosmopolitan. Collectively, they are known from all continents except Antarctica and more . . . [Full Text of this Article]