#beetle

#beetle

Trigonopterus corona: New Species of Tiny Beetle Named after the CoronavirusWhat was supposed to be a research trip to Papua New Guinea became a discovery of new weevil species for Alexander Riedel when he found himself grounded on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Together with Raden Pramesa Narakusumo, Riedel studied the local weevil specimens, and they discovered 24 species.The duo found it difficult to name the newly discovered species, but they settled calling one Trigonopterus corona, to show how much impact the pandemic had over the project.Some species had "standard" names, while others were named after Indonesian film characters and Star Wars characters, like the T. gundala and the T. yoda, respectively.Trigonopterus corona is not the first species to be named after the coronavirus. A caddisfly and some wasp species were named after it, too.More about this over at PENSOFT.(Image Credit: Alexander Riedel)#Taxonomy #Weevil #Beetle #NewSpecies

Newly Identified Beetle Species That Lived 49 Million Years Ago is Named After Sir David AttenboroughA newly identified prehistoric beetle which lived 49 million years ago was just named after naturalist Sir David Attenborough.The frog-legged beetle was identified by Frank Krell of Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Francesco Vitali of the Luxembourg National Museum of Natural History. The fossil of the insect was found in the Green River Formation in Colorado.The beetle's beautiful pattern on its wing casings caught Krell's attention and inspired its name,Pulchritudo attenboroughi or Attenborough's Beauty. "This is one of the most magnificent beetle fossils ever found," Krell said in a statement. "The patterning is preserved in unsurpassed clarity and contrast, making this one of the best-preserved beetle fossils. It is most definitely deserving of its name.#beetle #fossil #paleontology #SirDavidAttenborough

New "Very Small and Cute" Beetle Species Found in Fossilized Dinosaur DungBiologist Martin Qvanström of Uppsala University in Sweden and his colleagues were studying 230-million-year-old coprolites or fossilized droppings when they discovered something unusual: a large number of beetle fragments preserved in the dung.The researches named the newly discovered beetle species Triamyxa coprolithica. Qvanström surmised that it was probably semiaquatic with a convex body shape, saying "Boat shaped almost. Very small and cute."From New Scientist:“To get fossilised remains of this quality, researchers have relied in the past on finding them in amber (fossilised tree resin),” says Jesus Lozano-Fernandez at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain. “The novelty here is the possibility of looking at what is inside of the opaque fossilised poo.”The earliest amber deposits formed about 140 million years ago early in the Cretaceous period, meaning we can’t rely on amber to learn about beetle evolution before that.These coprolites allow us to learn about this and ecological relationships in an earlier period called the Triassic.The droppings containing T. coprolithica probably came from Silesaurus opolensis, a reptilian dinosaur relative which ate these beetles in large numbers.#fossil #beetle #coprolite #dinosaur #paleontology #insect