Mid-Mesozoic Flea-like Ectoparasites of Feathered or Haired Vertebrates
Mid-Mesozoic Flea-like Ectoparasites of Feathered or Haired Vertebrates
复制标题
中生代有羽毛或有毛脊椎动物的类跳蚤体外寄生虫
DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2012.03.012
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发表时间：
2012-04-24
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Ren, Dong
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gao, Tai-ping;Shih, Chung-kun;Ren, Dong
昆虫和哺乳动物或鸟类之间的寄生虫-宿主关系受到新生物学研究的关注[1]。一个始新世鸟虱压缩化石[2，3]和几个跳蚤标本始新世和渐新世琥珀[4-8]，迄今报道，是非常相似的生活虱子和跳蚤类群。但寄生虫的起源、形态和早期进化以及它们与宿主的关系却知之甚少[9，101]，这是由于中生代推定的外寄生虫的分类不确定，大多数缺乏口器信息和头部形态的其他关键细节[11-15]。在这里，我们提出了两个原始蚤状种分配给拟蚤科高，施等任familia nova（fam. 11月），中国中侏罗世的拟蚤属新种（Pseudopulex jurassicus Gao，Shih et Ren novum gen. et sp. nov）和早白垩世的拟蚤属（P. magnus Gao，Shih et Ren sp. nov.）它们表现出许多外寄生昆虫的特征。大型的身体和长锯齿状的针刺，可以刺穿宿主坚韧而厚的皮肤或兽皮，这表明这些原始的体外寄生虫可能生活在相对较大的宿主身上并吸食其血液，例如同时代的有羽毛恐龙和/或翼龙或中型哺乳动物（发现于早白垩世，但不是中侏罗世）。
Parasite-host associations among insects and mammals or birds are well attended by neontological studies [1]. An Eocene bird louse compression fossil [2, 3] and several flea specimens from Eocene and Oligocene ambers [4-8], reported to date, are exceptionally similar to living louse and flea taxa. But the origin, morphology, and early evolution of parasites and their associations with hosts are poorly known [9, 101 due to sparse records of putative ectoparasites with uncertain classification in the Mesozoic, most lacking mouthpart information and other critical details of the head morphology [11-15]. Here we present two primitive flea-like species assigned to the Pseudopulicidae Gao, Shih et Ren familia nova (fam. nov.), Pseudopulex jurassicus Gao, Shih et Ren genus novum et species nova (gen. et sp. nov) from the Middle Jurassic [16] and P. magnus Gao, Shih et Ren sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous in China [17]. They exhibit many features of ectoparasitic insects. Large body size and long serrated stylets for piercing tough and thick skin or hides of hosts suggest that these primitive ectoparasites might have lived on and sucked the blood of relatively large hosts, such as contemporaneous feathered dinosaurs and/or pterosaurs or medium-sized mammals (found in the Early Cretaceous, but not the Middle Jurassic).