Termite coprolites (Blattodea: Isoptera) from the Early Cretaceous of eastern Inner Mongolia, Northeast China
Termite coprolites (Blattodea: Isoptera) from the Early Cretaceous of eastern Inner Mongolia, Northeast China
复制标题
内蒙古东部早白垩世白蚁粪化石（蜚蠊总目：等翅目）
DOI：
10.11646/palaeoentomology.5.1.2
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发表时间：
2022-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Huang Diying
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dong Chong;Shi Gongle;Wang Zixi;Huang Diying
在内蒙古东部霍林河盆地下白垩统霍林河组褐煤层中发现了保存完好的粪化石。这些粪化石提供了以下特征的组合：椭圆形至圆柱形，具有六个纵向脊，六边形至椭圆形横截面，以及一个钝端和另一个尖端。根据这些独特的特征和它们的大小范围，这些粪化石的生产者被归因于白蚁。白蚁起源于早白垩世，演化辐射期为早白垩世。粪化石中木屑的存在表明霍林河盆地早白垩世白蚁具有木材食性;木屑上的解剖特征进一步表明其喜食针叶树木材。此外，对这些粪化石进行的k-均值聚类分析结果表明，存在3个不同比例的聚类，表明早在早白垩世就存在白蚁社会性的分工。
Well-preserved coprolites (fossil faecal pellets) were found from lignite seams of the Lower Cretaceous Huolinhe Formation at the Huolinhe Basin in eastern Inner Mongolia, Northeast China. These coprolites provide a combination of following features: oval to cylindrical shaped with six longitudinal ridges, hexagonal to elliptical cross-sections, and one blunt end and the other pointed end. According to these distinct features and their size range, the producers of these coprolites are attributed to termites. Termites were estimated to have originated in the earliest Cretaceous with an evolutionary radiation in the Early Cretaceous. The presence of wood debris in the coprolites indicate that the Early Cretaceous termites from the Huolinhe Basin had wood-feeding habits; and anatomical features displaying on the wood debris further suggest their feeding preference was coniferous wood. Besides, the results of a k-means clustering analysis performed for these coprolites indicate that three clusters with different proportion were present, suggesting the division of labor in termites’ sociality existed as early as the Early Cretaceous.