Paleoselatosomus cretaceus gen. et sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Elateridae): the first known representative of Dendrometrinae from the Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber
Authors:
Kundrata R, Triskova K, Prosvirov AS
Published in:
Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 99, issue 3;
pages: 191 - 202;
Received 27 February 2024;
Accepted in revised form 5 June 2024;
Online 23 June 2024
Keywords:
click beetles,
morphology,
palaeodiversity,
Prosternini,
Selatosomini,
taxonomy,
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Abstract
The fossil record of Elateridae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea) in Cretaceous has been only poorly documented so far. The recent rise of interest in Burmese amber brought some progress into our knowledge of the Cretaceous click-beetle diversity; however, still many questions remain to be answered. In this study, we describe
Paleoselatosomus cretaceus gen. et sp. nov. based on a single well-preserved specimen from the Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber. This species represents the first member of the subfamily Dendrometrinae known from the Cretaceous period. Based on the available morphological characters, we tentatively place the new species in tribe Selatosomini. It is the second described fossil of this tribe, and the first one reported from the Mesozoic era. We discuss the morphology of the new species as well as the limits and diagnostic characters for recent Selatosomini and Prosternini, and add an updated list of described Elateridae species from Burmese amber.
