Elsevier

Cretaceous Research

Volume 140, December 2022, 105357
Cretaceous Research

Short communication
A new species of Notocupes (Coleoptera: Archostemata) from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Jinju Formation in South Korea

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105357Get rights and content

Abstract

Notocupes premeris sp. nov., is reported from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Jinju Formation, representing the first complete body fossil of Notocupes from the Korean Peninsula. The new species is characterized by the broad body shape (e.g., ventrite 5 about 1.8 times as wide as long), about 30 cells maximum per row on elytra, and the somewhat V-shaped anterior pronotal edge. The species assignment of the previously reported Zygadenia elytron from North Korea is also discussed.

Introduction

The genus Notocupes Ponomarenko, 1964 is a relatively common member in the beetle fauna of Mesozoic Eurasia. While the first complete body fossil of Notocupes was reported by Ponomarenko (1964), the discovery of a possibly congeneric isolated elytron (Zygadenia Handlirsch, 1906) could date back to the 19th century (Giebel, 1856). Although Kirejtshuk (2020) proposed to synonymize Notocupes with Zygadenia, some researchers argued that it is better to use the name Zygadenia for isolated elytra only, as there might be several lineages with the same type of elytra (Ponomarenko and Ren, 2010; Strelnikova and Yan, 2021). Until now, about 80 species of Notocupes/Zygadenia have been described from Triassic to Cretaceous deposits (Kirejtshuk, 2020). Notocupes has been generally treated as a member of Ommatidae (or Ommatinae in Cupedidae sensu lato, which is not monophyletic) (e.g., Ponomarenko, 1969; Tan et al., 2012; Jarzembowski et al., 2015; Strelnikova, 2019; Kirejtshuk, 2020). However, its overlapping abdominal ventrites, together with some other characters, point to a possible affinity with Cupedidae sensu stricto (Strelnikova and Yan, 2021).

The only fossil record of Notocupes/Zygadenia from the Korean Peninsula prior to this study is an isolated elytron assigned to Z. liui Jarzembowski et al., 2015 from the Sinuiju Formation of North Korea (Won et al., 2020). In the present study, we report the first fossil of Notocupes, N. premeris sp. nov., from South Korea.

Section snippets

Geological setting

The studied specimen of N. premeris sp. nov. originated from the Jinju Formation in Wolseongri, Sanam-myeon, Sacheon City, South Gyeongsang Province (35°N, 128°E; Fig. 1). The Jinju Formation, named by Chang (1975), belongs to the Sindong Group, Gyeongsang Supergroup in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula (Fig. 1). Based on the U–Pb dating of zircon, the age of the Jinju Formation has been estimated as 106 Ma (Albian) (Lee et al., 2010; Kim and Huh, 2018).

Numerous vertebrate fossils

Materials and methods

The holotype of Notocupes premeris sp. nov. is deposited in the Gongju National University of Education (GNUE), Gongju, South Korea. Photographs were taken with a Sony α7R IV mirrorless camera equipped with a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens or a MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro lens. The sketch was drawn with the PaintTool SAI software (https://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/).

This published work and the nomenclatural act it contains have been registered in ZooBank, the proposed online registration

Systematic paleontology

  • Order Coleoptera Linnaeus, 1758

  • Suborder Archostemata Kolbe, 1908

  • Genus Notocupes Ponomarenko, 1964

  • Notocupes premeris sp. nov (Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4)

  • Etymology. The specific name “premeris” means “pressed” in Latin.

  • Material. Holotype, GNUE-217010 (part, GNUE-217010B, and counterpart, GNUE-210710A), deposited in the Gongju National University of Education, Gongju, South Korea.

  • Locality and horizon. Wolseongri, Sanam-myeon, Sacheon City, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea; Jinju Formation,

Discussion

Body fossils of Notocupes have been discovered from China (Hong, 1983, 1992; Hong and Wang 1990; Ren, 1995; Wang and Liu, 1996; Tan et al., 2005, 2006; Tan and Ren, 2006; Ponomarenko and Ren, 2010; Ponomarenko et al., 2012), Germany (Oppenheim, 1888), Kazakhstan (Ponomarenko, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1971), Kyrgyzstan (Ponomarenko, 1968, 1969), Myanmar (Jarzembowski et al., 2017, 2020; Tihelka et al., 2019; Jiang et al., 2020), Mongolia (Ponomarenko, 1994), Russia (Ponomarenko, 1966, 1985, 1993;

Concluding remarks

Notocupes was a widely distributed and morphologically conserved genus in the Mesozoic. The discovery of N. premeris in South Korea further extends our knowledge about the distribution range and the intrageneric morphological variation of the genus.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Alfred F. Newton (Field Museum of Natural History) for the detailed proofreading. We also thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for the helpful suggestions. This study was not financially supported by any institution.

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