Cretophasmomima is an extinct genus of stem group-stick insect from the Cretaceous of Eurasia and is one of the oldest and most basal stick insects known, it belongs to the Susumanioidea.

Cretophasmomima
Temporal range: Cretaceous Barremian–Campanian
Three specimens of Cretophasmomima melanogramma (two males and a female), including the holoype (B)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Phasmatodea
Family: Susumaniidae
Subfamily: Susumaniinae
Genus: Cretophasmomima
Kuzmina, 1985
Type species
Cretophasmomima vitimica
Kuzmina, 1985
Restoration of an Eomaia feeding on a Cretophasmomima

Species

edit

The type species, Cretophasmomima vitimica, was described in 1985 from the Aptian aged Zaza Formation in Russia.[1]A second species, Cretophasmomima burjatica was described from the same formation in 1988.[2] A third and fourth species, Cretophasmomima clara and Cretophasmomima arkagalica were also described in 1988 in the same paper from the Ola Formation and the Arkagalinskaya Formation respectively, both formations are Lower Campanian in age.[2] A fifth species Cretophasmomima melanogramma was described in 2014 off the basis of three specimens from the Aptian Yixian Formation in China.[3] In 2020 a sixth species Cretophasmomima traceyae was described based on a forewing with preserved colouration from the Barremian aged Weald Clay Formation in England.[4]

References

edit
  1. ^ S. A. Kuzmina. 1985. New Orthoptera of the Family Phasmomimidae from the Lower Cretaceous in Transbaikalia. Paleontological Journal 19(56):56-63
  2. ^ a b A. V. Gorochov. 1988. O klassifikatsii iskopaemykh pryamokrylykh nadsemeystva Phasmomimoidea (Orthoptera) s opisannem novykh taksonov. Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta AN SSSR 178:32-44
  3. ^ Maomin Wang; Olivier Béthoux; Sven Bradler; Frédéric M. B. Jacques; Yingying Cui; Dong Ren (2014). "Under Cover at Pre-Angiosperm Times: A Cloaked Phasmatodean Insect from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota". PLOS One. 9 (3): e91290. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091290. PMC 3960115 Freely accessible. PMID 24646906.
  4. ^ Xu, Chunpeng; Jarzembowski, Edmund A.; Fang, Yan (January 2020). "A new stick insect (Phasmatodea: Susumanioidea) from the Lower Cretaceous Wealden Group of southern England". Cretaceous Research. 112: 104387. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104387.