First fossil tanaocerid orthopteran insect from the mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber and its palaeogeographic significance
Lingwei Li, Laure Desutter-Grandcolas, De Zhuo, Zhiping Wu, André Nel, and Chunpeng Xu
Desert long-horned grasshoppers (Tanaoceridae) represent a small extant caeliferan group restricted to arid regions of Western North America, particularly the Sonoran Desert. The discovery of the first fossil Tanaoceridae in the mid-Cre-taceous Kachin amber from Myanmar provides new insights into the evolutionary history of this relict group. The new fossil Tanaoceridae inhabited warm and humid forest environments, contrasting sharply with the desert habitats of the extant representatives. This suggests an important ecological shift or restriction over time, likely driven by climatic and environmental changes. The pattern of distribution is discussed, indicating that the Sonoran Desert may represent a refugium for Tanaoceridae, a lineage that was once more ecologically diverse and palaeogeographically widespread.
Key words: Insecta, Caelifera, Acridomorpha, Kachin amber, paleoenvironment, calibration point, mid-Cretaceous, Myanmar.
Lingwei Li [lwli@nigpas.ac.cn; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2901-4093 ], School of Geosciences, China Uni-versity of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China and State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigra-phy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China. Laure Desutter-Grandcolas [laure.desutter-grandcolas@mnhn.fr; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7781-3451 ] and André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-7651 ] (corresponding author), Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (UMR 7205) Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE-PSL, Université des Antilles, F-75005 Paris, France. De Zhuo [zhuode113@163.com; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9559-5542 ], Beijing Xiachong Amber Museum, Beijing 100023, China. Zhiping Wu [wuzp@upc.edu.cn; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8766-0914 ], School of Geosciences, China Uni-versity of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China. Chunpeng Xu [cpxu@nigpas.ac.cn; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4991-4279] (corresponding author), State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China and Institut für Zoologie und Evolutionsforschung, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany.
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