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Revisiting the Raractocetus Fossils from Mesozoic and Cenozoic Amber Deposits (Coleoptera: Lymexylidae)
Yan-Da Li1,2, David Peris3,4, Shûhei Yamamoto5
1State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Centre for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
Abstract:
The fossils once assigned to Raractocetus Kurosawa from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic amber deposits differ from extant Raractocetus in the longer elytra, the more strongly projecting metacoxae, and the hind wing with vein 2A forked. Thus, these fossils should be removed from Raractocetus. Cretoquadratus engeli Chen from Kachin amber appears to be conspecific with R. fossilis Yamamoto. As a result, R. fossilis and R. extinctus Yamamoto from Kachin amber, R. balticus Yamamoto from Baltic amber, and R. sverlilo Nazarenko, Perkovsky & Yamamoto from Rovno amber are transferred to Cretoquadratus Chen, as C. fossilis (Yamamoto) comb. nov., C. extinctus (Yamamoto) comb. nov., C. balticus (Yamamoto) comb. nov., and C. sverlilo (Nazarenko, Perkovsky & Yamamoto) comb. nov., and C. engeli syn. nov. is suggested to be a junior synonym of C. fossilis.
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