Abstract: | Fossils provide excellent opportunities for bringing to light evolutionary
trends, and testing phylogenetic hypotheses. However, the difficulty in accessing
internal structures limits the provision of accurate descriptions, and thus limits
the comparison of fossil specimens with extant fauna. The virtual dissection of
amber fossils by propagation phase-contrast X-ray synchrotron microtomography
(PPC-SRμCT) allows incomparable possibilities for the visualization of genital
structures, which are of prime importance in assessing the taxonomic status and
phylogenetic relationships in many groups of insects. The method is illustrated on
one new species of Coleoptera Leiodidae Anemadini in Baltic amber: Nemadus
microtomographicus sp.n.
|