Unparalleled details of soft tissues in a Cretaceous ant

BMC Ecology and Evolution

Research

Guojie Zhang¹  Hong He²  Wenjing Xu²  Hao Ran³  Yuhui Zhuang⁴  Huijuan Mai⁴  Xiaoqin Li⁴  Yu Liu⁴ 

[1] Evolutionary & Organismal Biology Research Center, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 310058, Hangzhou, China;State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 650223, Kunming, China;Villum Center for Biodiversity Genomics, Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark;Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration On Management of Forest Bio-Disaster, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, 712100, Yangling, Shaanxi, China;State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 650223, Kunming, China;Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection, Ministry of Education, 541004, Guilin, China;Biological Education and Research Laboratory, Mancheng High School of Hebei Province, 072150, Baoding, China;Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, South Waihuan Road, Chenggong District, 650500, Kunming, China;MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology and Palaeoenvironment, Yunnan University, 650500, Kunming, China;

关键词: Amber;    Cretaceous;    Fossil;    Micro-CT;    Soft-tissue preservation;    Zigrasimecia;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12862-022-02099-2

 received in 2022-10-11, accepted in 2022-12-09,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

For social insects such as ants, the internal organs are likely important in understanding their eusocial behavior and evolution. Such organs, however, are rarely preserved on fossils. In each of the few cases reporting exceptionally fossilized soft tissues in arthropods, the nervous, muscular and cardiovascular systems have been described individually, but never in combination. Here, we report a female specimen (gyne) of the extinct ant group—†Zigrasimecia—included in a Cretaceous amber piece from Kachin, Myanmar, with an almost complete system formed by various internal organs. These include the brain, the main exocrine system, part of the digestive tract, and several muscle clusters. This research expands our knowledge of internal anatomy in stem group ants. As the gyne bears a morphologically unique labrum, our specimen’s internal and external features support the notion that the early ant may have special ecological habits during the Cretaceous period.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

【 图 表 】

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