Title | FOSSIL HABROTROCHID ROTIFERS IN DOMINICAN AMBER |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 1993 |
Authors | Waggoner, BM, Poinar, GO |
Journal | Experientia |
Volume | 49 |
Pagination | 354-357 |
Type of Article | Journal Article |
ISSN | 0014-4754 |
Abstract | Flask-shaped microfossils are reported from bracts of a moss in Eocene-Oligocene amber from the northern Dominican Republic. These microfossils are identical with the thecae of certain living moss-dwelling rotifers 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 support the identification of these fossils with Habrotrocha; the fossils are almost identical to extant H. angusticollis. The parthenogenetic bdelloid rotifers have a longer evolutionary history than was previously thought; habrotrochid rotifers seem to have persisted for 35 million years with very little change in morphology or ecological role. |
URL | <Go to ISI>://WOS:A1993KY75500021 |
DOI | 10.1007/bf01923421 |