How Time Flies for Flies: Diverse Diptera from the Triassic of Virginia and Early Radiation of the Order

By Vladimir Blagoderov, D. Grimaldi, N. Fraser. 2007

119 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The most diverse and best-preserved early fauna of flies (order Diptera) is described from the Late Carnian (Late Triassic, ca. 220 Ma) of Virginia, USA. Complete flies are preserved as aluminosilicate films on very fine-grained shales from the Cow Branch Formation, which is part of the Newark Supergroup of Early Mesozoic rift basins from eastern North America. The dipteran fauna consists of eight families (one new), 11 genera (five new), and 16 species (11 new), and includes the following taxa (Blagoderov and Grimaldi are the authors of all new names): Architipula youngi Krzemiński, Metarchilimonia krzeminskorum n.gen., n.sp., and M. solita n.sp. (Limoniidae); Triassopsychoda olseni n.gen., n.sp. (Psychodidae); Culicomorpha indet.; Yalea argentata (Krzemiński), Y. rectimedia n.sp., Alinka cara Krzemiński (Procramptonomyiidae); Veriplecia rugosa n.sp., Virginiptera certa n.gen., n.sp., V. similis n.sp., V. lativentra n.sp. (Paraxymyiidae); Brachyrhyphus distortus n.gen. n.sp. (Protorhyphidae); ?Crosaphis virginiensis n.sp. (Crosaphididae); and Prosechamyia trimedia n.gen., n.sp., P. dimedia n.sp. (Prosechamyiidae, new family). Particularly significant is a culicomorphan with a long proboscis, which is the earliest fossil record of a structure specialized apparently for blood feeding. Also, Prosechamyia appears to be a stem group to the very diverse infraorder Brachycera, the earliest definitive members of which appear in the Early Jurassic. Phylogenetic relationships of major clades of living and extinct nematocerous Diptera are analyzed, indicating that infraordinal-level diversification was complete by the Late Triassic. Flies did not reach modern levels of ecological abundance until the mid-Jurassic, apparently due to diversification within most infraorders by that time.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/26ca2f891c21977a78847f8e217d0d63d7860e26

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Citations in the corpus

When molecules and morphology concur: the ‘Gondwanan’ midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) (2010, background): “…predates the oldest fossil true dipteran (Grauvogelia arzvilleriana Krzeminski et al., 1994) from the Lower–Mid Triassic of France, c. 240 Ma, and the subsequent diversity of fossil Diptera, including culicomorphans, exposed in the mid–late Triassic (Late Carnian, 220 Ma) (Blagoderov et al., 2007).”
Phylogenetics and temporal diversification of the earliest true flies (Insecta: Diptera) based on multiple nuclear genes (2008, unknown): “These include the Tipulomorpha (Trichoceridae and Tipulidae) and the Diarchineura (Tanyderidae and Psychodidae) (Shcherbakov et al., 1995; Krzeminski & Krzeminska, 2003; Blagoderov et al., 2007).”
Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life (2011, result): “S3, and Table S3) corroborates the fossil- and molecule-based hypothesis that fly diversification has been driven by episodic bursts of rapid radiation (30).”
FOSSIL CALIBRATIONS FOR THE ARTHROPOD TREE OF LIFE (2016, background): “Although the original description assigned G. arzvilleriana to its own family, several wing venation characters were noted as similarities with families of Psychodomorpha (Krzeminski et al., 1994).”
A Historical Overview of the Classification, Evolution, and Dispersion of Leishmania Parasites and Sandflies (2016, background): “Psychodidae emerged later, during either the Jurassic [69] or the Triassic period [70].”
Phylogeny and systematics of Diptera: Two decades of progress and prospects (2007, unknown): “Some studies favor Anisopodidae, over other families of Psychodomorpha, as sister-group of Brachycera (Krivosheina 1988, Woodley 1989, Oosterbroek and Courtney 1995, Blagoderov et al. 2007).”