A diverse fossil terrestrial arthropod fauna from New Zealand: evidence from the early Miocene Foulden Maar fossil lagerstätte |
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Authors: | Uwe Kaulfuss Daphne E Lee Barbara IP Barratt Richard AB Leschen Marie‐Claude Larivière Gennady M Dlussky Ian M Henderson Anthony C Harris |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Geology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;2. AgResearch Invermay, Mosgiel, New Zealand;3. Department of Botany, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand;4. Landcare Research, New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Auckland, New Zealand;5. Department of Biological Evolution, Biological Faculty Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation;6. Ecology Group, Institute of Agriculture & Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand;7. Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand |
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Abstract: | Fossil evidence for the evolutionary history of terrestrial arthropods in New Zealand is extremely limited; only six pre‐Quaternary insects (Triassic to Eocene) have been recorded previously, none of Miocene age. The Foulden Maar fossil lagerstätte in Otago has now yielded a diverse arthropod assemblage, including members of the Araneae, Plecoptera, Isoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Trichoptera and Diptera. The fauna significantly emends the fossil record for the Southern Hemisphere, provides an unparalleled insight into a 23‐million‐year‐old New Zealand lake/forest palaeoecosystem and allows a first evaluation of arthropod diversity at a time coeval with or shortly after the maximum marine transgression of Zealandia in the late Oligocene. The well‐preserved arthropods chiefly represent ground‐dwelling taxa of forest floor and leaf litter habitats, mostly from sub‐families and genera that are still present in the modern fauna. They provide precisely dated fossil evidence for the antiquity of some of New Zealand's terrestrial arthropods and the first potential time calibrations for phylogenetic studies. The high arthropod diversity at Foulden Maar, together with a subtropical rainforest flora and fossil evidence for complex arthropod–plant interactions, suggests that terrestrial arthropods persisted during the Oligocene marine transgression of Zealandia. |
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Keywords: | Foulden Maar Miocene New Zealand rainforest palaeoecosystem terrestrial arthropods |
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