Paleobiology of beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) from Western European Cretaceous ambers

International audienceThe whole assemblage of beetles in the Cretaceousambers of Western Europe (Spain and France) is surveyedfor the first time (Peris et al., 2016). Spanish amber (upperAlbian in age) has 149 specimens of 30 families whileFrench amber (upper Albian–Santonian in age) has 65specimens of 16 families (Table 1). Only five families areshared by both ambers: Caridae (Fig. 3E), Ptinidae,Scraptiidae (Fig. 6C), Staphylinidae, and Trogossitidae;thus totaling 41 different families identified, mainly intoPolyphaga (Table 1). This low number of shared families issurprising, considering the paleogeographic and temporalproximilty of both areas (Figs. 1-2). The sligthly ancientorigin for the Spanish amber, the paleogeography (includingsome barriers for terrestrial biota) and the localpaleohabitats are factors that may explain the dissimilaritywith the French specimens.The Spanish and French ambers clearly contain, up today, the oldest representatives of the Polyphagan families: Bostrichidae (Fig. 3C), Elmidae,Eucinetidae (Fig. 4A), Histeridae (Fig. 4B), Jacobsoniidae (Fig. 4C), Leiodidae, Limnichidae (Fig. 4E), Nosodendridae (Fig. 5C), Oedemeridae, Omethidae(Fig. 5D), Phalacridae (Fig. 5E), Ripiphoridae (Fig. 6A), and Tetratomidae (Fig. 6F). Furthermore, the records for the families Bostrichidae, Elmidae,Limnichidae, Nosodendridae, Omethidae and Phalacridae are the sole record for the whole Mesozoic (Peris, 2015). This means that all these familiesalready existed at least in the late Early Cretaceous and have persisted until now.Blakey, R.C. 2011. Global paleogeographic views of earth history: Late Precambrian to Recent. http://cpgeosystems.com/paleomaps.html.Bouchard, P., Bousquet, Y., Davies, A.E., Alonso-Zarazaga, M.A., Lawrence, J.F., Lyal, C.H., Newton, A.F., Reid, C.A.M., Schmitt, M., Ślipiński, S.A., Smith, A.B.T. 2011. Family groupnames in Coleoptera (Insecta). Zookeys 88, 1–972.Cohen, K.M., Finney, S.C., Gibbard, P.L., Fan, J.-X. 2013 . The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36, 199–204.The involvement of beetles in high resin production during theCretaceous has been reconsidered after the low presence ofwood-borer families in these and other Cretaceous ambers fromthe Tethyan realm. By contrast, most families identified currentlymaintain a saproxylic or detritivorous life style (Table 1).Therefore, this release of resin was influenced by other causessuch as wildfires, storms or some other biological effect (Peris etal., 2016)