New family of wasps found in North American amber, closest relatives in southern hemisphere
This is a holotype of Plumalexius rasnitsyni. Credit: Denis Brothers
After being alerted by Alexandr Rasnitsyn (Palaeontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) to two unusual wasps in amber found in New Jersey, USA, Denis Brothers (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) has determined that they represent a new family of wasps, but with its closest relatives found in South America and South Africa. The study was published in a special issue of the open-access journal ZooKeys dedicated to the 75th birthday of Professor Rasnitsyn.
The new family has been named Plumalexiidae, and comprises one new species, Plumalexius rasnitsyni Brothers, the names honouring Alexandr Rasnitsyn, who is undoubtedly the world's foremost authority on the diversity and fossil history of the Hymenoptera, the group of insects which comprises wasps, bees, ants, sawflies and their relatives, in commemoration of his 75th birthday.
The only known specimens are two small males found in Late Cretaceous amber from New Jersey, USA, dating from over 90 million years ago, which was apparently formed in a forested swampy environment. A detailed analysis during which they were compared with specimens of a variety of wasp groups, has shown that they are apparently most closely related to the family Plumariidae, now found only in the arid areas of South America and southern Africa and not known from any fossils. Although they share a few features with the Plumariidae, they also look very different, and so are considered best placed in a different family. The dissimilar habitats involved also indicate that their lifestyles and habits must have been different.
This is a second specimen of Plumalexius rasnitsyni. Credit: Denis Brothers
This finding raises many questions about the origins of the larger group of stinging wasps to which the new family belongs (the superfamily Chrysidoidea), the reasons for the apparently disjunct distributions of the grouping (Plumalexiidae in North America and Plumariidae in South America and southern Africa), and the biology of the new family (and even that of the Plumariidae, males and females of which have never been associated directly, and whose behaviour has not been observed in the field). These questions can only be answered satisfactorily once additional specimens, preferably from other localities, have been found.More information: Brothers DJ (2011) A new Late Cretaceous family of Hymenoptera, and phylogeny of the Plumariidae and Chrysidoidea (Aculeata). In: Shcherbakov DE, Engel MS, Sharkey MJ (Eds) Advances in the Systematics of Fossil and Modern Insects: Honouring Alexandr Rasnitsyn. ZooKeys 130: 515. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.130.1591
Provided by Pensoft Publishers
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Sep 26, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (5)
1.Why is the amber still clear after 90 million years? Shouldn't it have gone dark-cloudy by now, to the extend that the wasps are almost invisible?
2. Why are they creating a new family when they haven't done any DNA testing on the items in the amber, to compare to the current living modern ones. Just because they LOOK different doesn't mean that they are necessarily so, since they might be at a different age? And I'm taking the liberty of presuming that the DNA might still be intact - just to throw a spanner in the works of the assumption that it isn't.
3.Will they do carbon-14 testing on the wasps and amber to check their assumption of 90 million years? I doubt it, because finding any significant quantity of C-14 in there would be too embarrassing.
Sep 26, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
2. Phylogeny isn't as imprecise as you think it is. Besides that, they may have extracted DNA samples. Before you retort (fat chance of that, though, seeing as you never respond), it is possible and has been done before.
Edit: I see that they did not, but they may in the future, and I hope they do.
http://www.mhrc.n...tDNA.htm
3. STOP IT. Carbon 14 dating is only accurate as far back as about 50,000 years. Other radioisomer dating methods are used when looking back that far. Flawed argument is flawed.
Sep 27, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (5)
As for the C-14 dating - you've just used the exact excuse the researchers use to avoid getting entangled in having to explain why there's still C-14 in the amber. If they were honest it would be a standard test. Seems like you are not considering that possibility for exactly the same reason - simply following the herd. Besides, using ANY dating method means having to interpret your results based on a set of assumptions. In the case of radio-metric dating there are some challenging flaws in the use of those assumptions.
Take for instance the case where C-14 is found in significant quantities in the amber/wasps. Just what excuse would they offer in order to maintain their belief in 90 million years? We won't know that until they actually do that analysis. What do they have to hide? I would like to challenge the researchers to have a C-14 test done on the sample and see what they get. Leave the herd.
Sep 27, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
The convenient wikipedia article shows very nice examples of ancient amber with very visible inclusions.
http://en.wikiped...ki/Amber
I have searched and found no such examples of amber becoming cloudy over time.
2. The assumptions are constant and there is no evidence otherwise.
http://www.epicid...ting.htm (in particular, the "answers to criticisms" section
http://www.jwoolf...dat.html (in particular, the first section)
http://en.wikiped...c_dating
http://sci.waikat...ng.shtml
http://www.gate.n...rth.html
Contamination is a huge part of radiometric dating