Paradoryphoribius is an extinct genus of tardigrades from the order Parachela.[1][2] It is the third fossil tardigrade to be named, described in 2021 from Miocene Dominican amber from the Dominican Republic. The type, and currently only species, is P. chronocaribbeus.[3]

Paradoryphoribius
Temporal range: Miocene (Burdigalian),
~16 Ma
Life reconstruction of Paradoryphoribius
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Tardigrada
Class: Eutardigrada
Order: Parachela
Superfamily: Isohypsibioidea
Genus: Paradoryphoribius
Mapalo et al. 2021
Species:
P. chronocaribbeus
Binomial name
Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus
Mapalo et al., 2021

Discovery and naming

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The holotype was discovered in Miocene Dominican amber from the Dominican Republic.[3] The amber specimen also contains three ants, a beetle, and a flower.

Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus was named and described by Mapalo et al. (2021),[1] making it the first extinct tardigrade known from the Cenozoic and is also the first tardigrade known from the Miocene.[4]

Description

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It has a length of 539 microns.[citation needed]

Classification

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In their description of Aerobius dactylus, Mapalo, Wolfe & Ortega-Hernández (2024) phylogenetically analyzed a combination of morphological features and rRNA sequences of multiple known tardigrade species. They recovered Paradoryphorybius as the sister taxon of Hexapodibius micronyx. These results are displayed in the cladogram below, with extinct species designated with a dagger ():[5][6]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Paradoryphoribius Mapalo et al., 2021". www.gbif.org. GBIF. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  2. ^ Pool, Rebecca (11 October 2021). "New tardigrade genus discovered". Wiley Analytical Science. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  3. ^ a b Mapalo, M. A.; Robin, N.; Boudinot, B. E.; Ortega-Hernández, J.; Barden, P. (2021). "A tardigrade in Dominican amber". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288 (1960): Article ID 20211760. doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.1760. PMC 8493197. PMID 34610770.
  4. ^ Lanese, Nicoletta (5 October 2021). "Tardigrade trapped in amber is a never-before-seen species". Live Science. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  5. ^ Mapalo, Marc A.; Wolfe, Joanna M.; Ortega-Hernández, Javier (2024-08-06). "Cretaceous amber inclusions illuminate the evolutionary origin of tardigrades". Communications Biology. 7 (1): 953. doi:10.1038/s42003-024-06643-2. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 11303527. PMID 39107512.
  6. ^ Cooper, Kenneth W. (1964-01-01). "The first fossil tardigrade: Beorn leggi Cooper, from Cretaceous amber". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 71 (2): 41–48. doi:10.1155/1964/48418. ISSN 0033-2615.