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A new and diverse paleofauna of the extinct snakefly family Baissopteridae from the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar (Raphidioptera)

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Abstract

Raphidioptera (snakeflies) are the least diverse order among extant Holometabola, representing relicts of their rich Mesozoic paleofauna. Baissopteridae are one of the two major lineages from the Mesozoic, but with a poorly known evolutionary history. Here, we report the first fossil record of Baissopteridae from the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar, represented by a diverse assemblage including 10 new species in six genera: Allobaissoptera oligophlebia gen. et sp. nov., Baissoptera burmana sp. nov., B. maculata sp. nov., B. monopoda sp. nov., B. pankowskiorum sp. nov., B. wangi sp. nov., Burmobiassoptera jiaxiaoae gen. et sp. nov., Electrobaissoptera burmanica gen. et sp. nov., Rhynchobaissoptera hui gen. et sp. nov., and Stenobaissoptera xiai gen. et sp. nov. The new Cretaceous baissopterids provide significant morphological evidence in favor of the monophyly of this family. The morphological diversity in these Cretaceous baissopterids, particularly with some specialized and unique characters, highlights the early radiation of snakeflies formed in the complex tropical forest ecosystem of the mid-Cretaceous.

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Availability of data and material

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the main text and/or Electronic Supplementary Material. Information of specimen depositions can be found in the Material and Methods. Specimens are available for study by contacting XL.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mrs. Xiao Jia, Mr. Fangyuan Xia, Mr. Ning Wang, and the family of Mark Pankowski for kindly providing amber specimens studied herein. We also thank Mr. Lukas Kirschy and Mr. Bernhard Schurian for kind assistance with photography during the visit of first author to the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. We are also very grateful to Prof. Dong Ren for the permission of examination of snakefly fossils deposited in the Capital Normal University, Beijing. Finally, we thank the three anonymous referees for their review that improved the manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31672322, 31900348, 31972871, 41572010, 41622201, 41688103), the Shanghai Sailing Program (19YF1443000), the Changjiang Scholars Program (2018) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Xiumei Lu & Xingyue Liu

  2. Institute of Ecological and Environmental Protection, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 201403, China

    Xiumei Lu

  3. Three Gorges Entomological Museum, P.O. Box 4680, Chongqing, 400015, China

    Weiwei Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Bo Wang

  5. Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum, and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 1501 Crestline Drive – Suite 140, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Michael S. Engel

  6. Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA

    Michael S. Engel

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  1. Xiumei Lu
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Xingyue Liu and Xiumei Lu designed the project; Xiumei Lu, Bo Wang, Michael S. Engel, and Xingyue Liu prepared figures and wrote the manuscript; Xiumei Lu and Xingyue Liu performed the comparative and analytical work; Xiumei Lu, Bo Wang, Weiwei Zhang, Michael S. Engel, and Xingyue Liu collected data; all authors contributed to the discussion.

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Lu, X., Zhang, W., Wang, B. et al. A new and diverse paleofauna of the extinct snakefly family Baissopteridae from the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar (Raphidioptera). Org Divers Evol 20, 565–595 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-020-00455-y

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