in Jurassic and Cretaceous Stratigraphy

Earth Science Frontiers, Vol. 17, Special Issue, Aug. 2010 ISSN 1005-2321
Taxonomy of Fossil Palaeontinidae from the Late Mesozoic in
Northeast China (Insecta: Heimptera: Cicadomorpha)
Ying Wang 1 , Dong Ren 2*
1. Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing 100050, China (E-mail: wangying_527@126.com)
2. College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China (E-mail: rendong@mail.cnu.edu.cn)
Palaeontinidae is an extinct family of Hemiptera
existed from the Triassic to the Mid Creatceous. Until
now, it includes 44 genera and 110 species, and have a
distribution in Kyrgyzstan (Triassic of Issyk-kue and
Sulucta, Jurassic of Sai-Sagul), Turkmenistan (Jurassic
of Karabas-Tau), China (Jurassic of Xinjiang, Hebei,
Gansu and Inner Mongolia; Late Jurassic to Early
Cretaceous of Liaoning), Russia (Jurassic of Iya, Ust-
Baley and Irkutsk, Early Cretaceous of Transbaikalia),
Tadzhikistan (Jurassic of Shurab), Kazakhstan (Jurassic
of Turgay), Australian (Triassic of Ipswich), South
Africa (Triassic of Bird’s River), Brazil (Cretaceous)
and Spain (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous) (Wang Y.
et al., 2007a). The extinct family Palaeontinidae had the
first appearance in the Middle Triassic of Australian
(Evans, 1956). It was abundant in the Jurassic and
became extinct by the Mid-Cretaceous (Menon et al.,
2005). The distribution of Palaeontinidae is correlated
with the abundance of Ginkgoales (Zherikhin and
Kalugina, 1985). It is highly improbable that they may
feed on phloem of rather thick stems of Ginkgoales.
Mesozoic volcanic activity in eastern China com-
menced in the Late Triassic, gradually increased in
intensity during the Early and Middle Jurassic. During
the Late Jurassic the volcanism was very strong, while
in the Early Cretaceous it was weaker and nearly
terminated in the Late Cretaceous (Xu, 1990). The
Northeast China, especially Jiulongshan Formation of
Middle Jurassic and Yixian Formation of Late Jurassic
to Early Cretaceous, yields a mass of notable fossils
including aboundan tinsects which provide important
evidence for study of the origin and early evolution of
insects.
Among these abundant insect fossils, the records
of fossil Palaeontinidae are quite common in the
insectiferous deposits from the Northeastern China, and
often very well preserved and presenting distinct
morphological disparity. These valuable materials are
important supplements to the record of world fossil
palaeontinid and may aid study of their origin as well as
their interactions between insects and plants.
Representatives of extinct Palaeontinidae were
huge, moth-like insects, resembling a little, but not
related to singing cicadas, which witnessed the rise and
fall of dinosaurs. Head with small postclypeus and long
rostrum. Compound eyes and ocelli present. Their
wing span ranges 10-36 mm; wings are very often
disruptive patterned, and body is often covered with
scales or dense hairs (Wang et al., 2007a; Wang and
Ren, 2009). A combination of cryptic coloration and
disruptive marking enhanced their camouflage. They
constitute 15.5% of specimens in the fossil record of
Northeastern China. The known taxonomic diversity of
these fossils is relatively high, with 42 species within
17 genera reported from the Daohugou (the Middle
Jurassic) and Beipiao (the Upper Jurassic to Lower
Cretaceous) strata. Another 14 species within 6 genera
reported from Xinjiang, Hebei and Gansu Province.
It is not very common to find fossil specimens
with well-preserved and complete body, forewings and
hind wings. Among erected genera of Palaeontinidae,
most genera were described and illustrated based on a
single forewing or hind wing. Up to now, 15 genera
worldwide were established based on complete
forewings and hind wings. Different venation pattern of
forewings and hind wings is important for generic
classification in palaeontinids. Well preserved speci-
mens from Daohugou and Beipiao strata enabled us to
accurately fix the characters of the wing and head.
The section at Daohugou Village is composed of
grey tuffaceous sandstone and sandy mudstone. Up to
now, in comprises rich animal and plant fossils, at least
130 species of insects have been collected from
Daohugou Village (Wang et al., 2007b). The paleo-
environment reconstructed for this locality is a volcanic
region with mountain streams and lakes. The age of
Daohugou fossil-bearing beds is Middle Jurassic. With
recent discoveries of the fossil genera Daohugoucossus
(Wang et al., 2006a), Eoiocossus (Wang et al., 2006b),
Quadraticossus (Wang and Ren, 2007), Hami- cossus
(Wang and Ren, 2007), Abrocossus Wang B. et al.,
2007, Neimenggucossus (Wang et al., 2007),
Cladocossus (Wang and Ren, 2009) and Cricocossus
(Wang and Ren, 2009), Daohugou area has proven to be
one of the most important site for studying past diver-
sity of the Palaeontinidae. By comparison, the Middle
Jurassic palaeontinids diversity is greater than those in
any other epoch, suggesting that the family probably
went into its most prosperous stage in the Middle
Jurassic. Their high taxonomic and morphological
diversity suggests a high complexity of niche structure
and a high level of specialization within the guild.
Key words: Palaeontinidae; Taxonomy; Meso-
zoic; China
References:
Evans J.W. Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Hemiptera (In-
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