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Testate Amoebae from a Cretaceous Forest Floor Microbiocoenosis of France |
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| Authors: | ALEXANDER R SCHMIDT VINCENT GIRARD VINCENT PERRICHOT WILFRIED SCHÖNBORN |
| Institution: | 1. Courant Research Centre Geobiology, Georg‐August‐Universit?t G?ttingen, Goldschmidtstrasse 3, D‐37077 G?ttingen, Germany, and;2. Université de Rennes 1, Unité Mixte de Recherche Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 6118, 263 avenue du Général Leclerc, F‐35042 Rennes Cedex, France, and;3. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4J1, Canada, and;4. Paleontological Institute, University of Kansas, Lindley Hall, 1475 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA, and;5. Friedrich‐Schiller‐Universit?t Jena, Institut für ?kologie, Dornburger Strasse 159, D‐07743 Jena, Germany |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT. Amber‐preserved shells of testate amoebae often provide as many diagnostic features as the tests of modern taxa. Most of these well‐preserved microfossils are morphologically assignable to modern species indicating either evolutionary stasis or convergent evolution. Here we describe two Lower Cretaceous testate amoebae that are clearly distinguishable from modern species. Centropyxis perforata n. sp. and Leptochlamys galippei n. sp. possessed perforate shells that were previously unknown in these genera. They are preserved in highly fossiliferous amber pieces from the Upper Albian (ca. 100 million years old) of Archingeay/Les Nouillers (Charente‐Maritime, southwestern France). Syninclusions of soil and litter dwelling arthropods and microorganisms indicate a limnetic‐terrestrial microhabitat at the floor of a coastal conifer forest. |
| Keywords: | Amber Arcellinida Centropyxis fossil microorganisms Leptochlamys palaeoecology testate lobose amoebae |