Journal
PARASITOLOGY
Volume 150, Issue 2, Pages 157-171Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182022001585
Keywords
Archaeocroton; Australia; Bothriocroton; Cretaceous; fossil; Ixodida; Metastriata; Myanmar; New Zealand
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Three examples of metastriate hard ticks from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber are described, showing affinities to modern Australasian genera. These findings support the hypothesis that the fauna of the amber forest originated from Gondwana and provide a revised evolutionary tree for Ixodida based on data from several new Burmese amber ticks.
Three examples of metastriate hard ticks (Ixodida: Ixodidae) with apparent affinities to modern Australasian genera are described from the mid-Cretaceous (ca. 100 Ma) Burmese amber of Myanmar. Two nymphs of Bothriocroton muelleri sp. nov. represent the oldest (and only) fossil record of this genus, living members of which are restricted to Australia and predominantly feed on monitor lizards, snakes and echidnas. A female of Archaeocroton kaufmani sp. nov. shares its basis capitulum shape with the tuatara tick Archaeocroton sphenodonti (Dumbleton, 1943), the only extant member of this genus and an endemic species for New Zealand. The presence of 2 Australasian genera in Burmese amber is consistent with a previous record of an Ixodes Latreille, 1795 tick from this deposit which resembles Australian members of this genus. They further support an emerging hypothesis that fauna of the amber forest, which may have been on an island at the time of deposition, was at least partly Gondwanan in origin. A revised evolutionary tree for Ixodida is presented compiling data from several new Burmese amber ticks described in the last few years.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available