Abstract
Abstract
We examine the implications for intercontinental dispersal of the extinct ant genus, Titanomyrma Archibald et al. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formiciinae), following the discovery of its first fossil in Eocene temperate upland Canada. Modern Holarctic distributions of plants and animals were in part formed by dispersals across Late Cretaceous through early Eocene Arctic land bridges. Mild winters in a microthermal Arctic would allow taxa today restricted to the tropics by cold intolerance to cross, with episodic hyperthermal events allowing tropical taxa requiring hot climates to cross. Modern ants with the largest queens inhabit low latitudes of high temperature and mild coldest months, whereas those with smaller queens inhabit a wide variety of latitudes and climates. Gigantic and smaller formiciine ants (Titanomyrma and Formicium Westwood) are known from Europe and North America in the Eocene. The new Canadian Titanomyrma inhabited a cooler upland. It is incomplete, indistinctly preserved, and distorted in fossilisation, and so we do not assign it to a species or erect a new one for it. The true size of this fossil is unclear by this distortion: small size would support gigantism in Titanomyrma requiring hot climates and dispersal during hyperthermals; if it was large, it may have been cold-winter intolerant and able to have crossed during any time when the land bridge was present.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Insect Science,Molecular Biology,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics,Structural Biology
Reference36 articles.
1. Eine neue Unterfamilie der Formicidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) aus dem mittel-eozänen Ölschiefer der ‘Grube Messel’ bei Darmstadt (Deutschland, S-Hessen) [A new subfamily of Formicidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) from the Middle Eocene oil shale of the ‘Grube Messel’ near Darmstadt (Germany, S-Hesse)];Lutz;Senckenbergiana Lethaea,1986
2. Systematische und palökologische Untersuchungen an Insekten aus dem Mittel-Eozän der Grube Messel bei Darmstadt [Systematic and palaeoecological studies on insects from the Middle Eocene of the Messel Pit near Darmstadt];Lutz;Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg,1990
3. Astronomical calibration of the Ypresian timescale: implications for seafloor spreading rates and the chaotic behavior of the solar system?
4. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum: A Perturbation of Carbon Cycle, Climate, and Biosphere with Implications for the Future
5. Transient Floral Change and Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary
Cited by
14 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献