科研之友
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摘要
The origin of the mainly sea-turtle fouling balanomorph family Chelonibiidae is still poorly documented. Aside from an Eocene erratic specimen assigned to an extinct subfamily, the extant subfamily Chelonibiinae did not appear in the fossil record before the Late Miocene. Protochelonibiinae Harzhauser & Newman subfam. nov. is here introduced as an extinct sister-group of Chelonibiinae. The subfamily is known so far only from the proto-Mediterranean and the Paratethys seas and ranged from Early Miocene to Late Pliocene. Members of the subfamily are characterized by large walls with tripartite rostra which display distinct sutures on the external surface. The tripartite rostrum, however, has evolved independently several times in the evolution of the balanomorphs and cannot be treated as synapomorphy. The subfamily comprises one new genus and two species. Protochelonibia Harzhauser & Newman gen. nov. is the type genus of Protochelonibiinae and Protochelonibia submersa Harzhauser & Newman sp. nov. is introduced as type species of this genus. Chelonobia Capellinii [sic] De Alessandri, 1895, from the Late Pliocene of Italy, reassigned as Protochelonibia capellinii (De Alessandri, 1895), is the youngest record of the subfamily. With the onset of the Pleistocene, Protochelonibiinae were fully replaced by Chelonibiinae, which had co-existed with Protochelonibiinae from the Late Miocene to the Pliocene. Surface imprints from the host substratum in one specimen of P. submersa are reminiscent of the sculpture of Caretta carapaces. Therefore, the Aquitanian Protochelonibia may be the earliest record of sea-turtle fouling in barnacles.
- 出版日期2011
