FOSSIL HABROTROCHID ROTIFERS IN DOMINICAN AMBER

Citation
Bm. Waggoner et Go. Poinar, FOSSIL HABROTROCHID ROTIFERS IN DOMINICAN AMBER, Experientia, 49(4), 1993, pp. 354-357
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Journal title
ISSN journal
00144754
Volume
49
Issue
4
Year of publication
1993
Pages
354 - 357
Database
ISI
SICI code
0014-4754(1993)49:4<354:FHRIDA>2.0.ZU;2-R
Abstract
Flask-shaped microfossils are reported from bracts of a moss in Eocene -Oligocene amber from the northern Dominican Republic. These microfoss ils are identical with the thecae of certain living moss-dwelling roti fers in the genus Habrotrocha (Bdelloidea), which have previously been reported as fossils only from Holocene peat. What may be an egg and a rotifer body fossil are associated with these thecae and further supp ort the identification of these fossils with Habrotrocha; the fossils are almost identical to extant H. angusticollis. The parthenogenetic b delloid rotifers have a longer evolutionary history than was previousl y thought; habrotrochid rotifers seem to have persisted for 35 million years with very little change in morphology or ecological role.