The Jurassic orthopteran Allaboilus gigantus Ren and Meng, 2006 (Prophalangopsidae) from Beipiao, Northeast China and its biostratigraphical significance
Introduction
Prophalangopsidae as the youngest family of the superfamily Hagloidea (Insecta, Orthoptera) can be dated back to the Early Jurassic (Gorochov, 2003; Wang, 2016). And Aboilinae is the most diverse subfamily of Prophalangopsidae including 68 described species within 27 genera from the Lower Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous of Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Mongolia, Japan, New Zealand, England and Germany (Wang, 2016). Especially in northeastern China, lots of insects assigned to this subfamily have been reported from the Jurassic Yanliao Biota and the Cretaceous Jehol Biota (Zhang et al., 2015; Wang, 2016). In western Liaoning Province, northeastern China the fossil-rich Haifanggou Formation yields lots of fossils including bivalves, clam shrimps, insects and plants (Chen, 2003; Wang et al., 2007; Wang, 2010; Wang and Wang, 2010) which belong to the Yanliao Biota. However, very few prophalangopsids have been recorded from this formation. Here, we report a new specimen assigned to Allaboilus gigantus Ren and Meng, 2006 within Aboilinae from the Jurassic Haifanggou Formation, and further discuss its biostratigraphical significance.
Section snippets
Geological background
The specimen described herein was collected from the Haifanggou Formation in Haifenggou Village, Beipiao City, western Lioning Province, China (Fig. 1A–C). The Haifanggou Formation underlies the Upper Jurassic Lanqi Formation (=Tiaojishan Formation) and overlies the Lower Jurassic Beipiao Formation (Hong, 1983; Zhang et al., 2015). Its lower part consists of sandstone, conglomerate, shale and interbedded pyroclastic rocks, and its upper part of breccia, conglomerate and sandstone (Fig. 1D). The
Material and methods
The specimen studied here was collected from the middle part of the Haifanggou Formation in Haifenggou Village, Beipiao City, western Liaoning Province, northeastern China. The fossil is preserved as a compression on the surface of yellowish green mudstone (Fig. 2, Fig. 3).
There is no consensus on the interpretation of wing-venation nomenclature of Orthoptera, here we follow the wing-venation nomenclature proposed and amended by Béthoux and Nel, 2001, Béthoux and Nel, 2002. The venational terms
Systematic palaeontology
Order Orthoptera Olivier, 1789
Superfamily Hagloidea Handlirsch, 1906
Family Prophalangopsidae Kirby, 1906
Subfamily Aboilinae Martynov, 1925
Genus Allaboilus Ren and Meng, 2006
Diagnosis: Forewing large; ScA long and reaching anterior margin close to midlength of forewing; ScP slightly sigmoidal; RA, RP and CuA + CuPaα with numerous branches (Gu et al., 2010).
Type species: Allaboilus dicrus Ren and Meng, 2006
Included species: The type species A. dicrus Ren and Meng, 2006; A. gigantus Ren and Meng,
Discussion and conclusion
The Daohugou Beds are one of the most famous Lagerstätten yielding the Daohugou Biota consisting of bivalves, fairy shrimps, clam shrimps, water fleas, insects, spiders, harvestmen, salamanders, squamates, pterosaurs, dinosaurs, mammals, plants, fungi, pollen and spores (Huang, 2016; Gao and Shubin, 2003; Wang et al., 2002; Xu and Zhang, 2005). However, the age and correlation of the Daohugou Beds have long been questionable. In the earlier studies, Wang et al. (2000) correlated the Daohugou
Acknowledgements
We thank the two anonymous reviewers for providing some constructive suggestions. Thanks also go to the Editor for his editorial assistance. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41572010, 41622201, 41688103), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDPB05).
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