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Fossil habrotrochid rotifers in Dominican amber

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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 genusHabrotrocha (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 withHabrotrocha; the fossils are almost identical to extantH. 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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Museum of Paleontology, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    B. M. Waggoner

  2. Department of Entomology, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    G. O. Poinar Jr

Authors
  1. B. M. Waggoner
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  2. G. O. Poinar Jr
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Waggoner, B.M., Poinar, G.O. Fossil habrotrochid rotifers in Dominican amber. Experientia 49, 354–357 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01923421

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01923421

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