Low diversity cockroach assemblage from Chernovskie Kopi in Russia confirms wing deformities in insects at the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary

The Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundary is of great importance for the evolution of cockroaches as 6 (of the total of 27) families and orders of termites and mantodeans evolved from them during this interval. The Jurassic affinities of most taxa and a complete lack of any characteristic Cretaceous co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biológia 2014-05, Vol.69 (5), p.651-675
Main Author: Barna, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Blattaria
Blattodea
Cell Biology
Chernovskie Kopi
ecosystems
evolution
fossil insects
insects
Isoptera
Jurassic/Cretaceous
Life Sciences
Microbiology
mutation
Plant Sciences
Section Zoology
venation deformities
wings
Zoology
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Summary:The Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundary is of great importance for the evolution of cockroaches as 6 (of the total of 27) families and orders of termites and mantodeans evolved from them during this interval. The Jurassic affinities of most taxa and a complete lack of any characteristic Cretaceous cockroach taxa combined with the presence of two termites indicate a position close to the J/K stratigraphic boundary for the locality Chernovskie Kopi in Transbaikalian Siberia. Among 41 specimens the dominant species was Blattula discors sp. n. (n = 14 (15?)) closely related to Blattula vidlickai Vršanský, 2004 from the roughly coeval locality Shar-Teg in Mongolia. Rhipidoblattina lacunata sp. n. (Caloblattinidae; n = 10) and Archimesoblatta kopi sp. n. were common, while Mongolblatta sanguinea sp. n. (Mesoblattinidae; n = 6, 1) and Rhipidoblatta grandis sp. n. (Caloblattinidae; n = 2) were rare. Six specimens, all possibly representing an unknown genus of the family Liberiblattinidae remain indetermined. Such composition of an assemblage with a low diversity, resulting from a destabilized ecosystem resembles Early Jurassic assemblages from Mintaja, Australia and diverse Toarcian localities in Germany and England rather than Middle or Late Jurassic assemblages. The present samples also contain plant remains. The almost complete lack of bodies, pronota and hind wings suggest a significant transport prior to deposition. Twenty deformities distributed on nine wings amounting to 22.5% of wings support the occurrence of mass mutations near the J/K boundary.
ISSN:0006-3088
1336-9563
DOI:10.2478/s11756-014-0349-9