Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris (CR2P), Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, 57 rue Cuvier, CP38, F-75005, Paris, France; Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, 43 rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France.
Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris (CR2P), Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, 57 rue Cuvier, CP38, F-75005, Paris, France.
Arthropod Struct Dev. 2021 Jul;63:101056. doi: 10.1016/j.asd.2021.101056. Epub 2021 May 10.
Probably the most common rock-imprint fossil-insect remain is an incomplete isolated wing. This pitfall has been traditionally addressed by manually reconstructing missing parts, which is not ideal to comprehend long-term evolutionary trends in the group, in particular for morphological diversity (i.e., disparity) approaches. Herein we describe a new Triassic relative of dragon- and damselflies (Odonata), Moltenophlebia lindae gen. et sp. nov., from the Molteno Formation (Karoo Basin, South Africa), on the basis of three incomplete, isolated wings. In order to provide a reconstruction of the complete wing venation of the species, we formalized and applied a repeatable method aiming at inferring the missing parts of a given specimen. It is based on homologous veins automatically identified thanks to a standardized color-coding. The dedicated script can be applied broadly to the fossil record of insect wings. The species is identified as a member of the Zygophlebiida, within the Triadophlebiomorpha. This discovery, therefore, represents the first ascertained occurrence of the latter group in Gondwana, an area where the fossil record of Odonata is depauperate.
可能最常见的岩石印痕化石昆虫遗迹是不完整的孤立翅膀。传统上，这种陷阱是通过手动重建缺失部分来解决的，但这并不理想，无法理解该群体的长期进化趋势，特别是对于形态多样性（即差异）方法。在此，我们根据三个不完整的、孤立的翅膀，描述了一种来自 Molteno 组（Karoo 盆地，南非）的蜻蜓和豆娘的三叠纪新亲缘关系，名为 Moltenophlebia lindae gen.et sp. nov.。为了提供该物种完整翅膀脉序的重建，我们形式化并应用了一种可重复的方法，旨在推断给定标本的缺失部分。它基于通过标准化颜色编码自动识别的同源静脉。专门的脚本可以广泛应用于昆虫翅膀的化石记录。该物种被鉴定为三叠虫形类中的 Zygophlebiida 的成员。因此，这一发现代表了后者在冈瓦纳的首次确定出现，而冈瓦纳的蜻蜓化石记录相对较少。
