Cretaceous Collembola (Arthropoda, Hexapoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Canada

ISSN： 0195-6671

Source： Cretaceous Research, Vol.23, Iss.2, 2002-04, pp. : 165-188

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Abstract

Previously only one specimen of springtail (Collembola) has been described worldwide from the Cretaceous. The present work reports the results of an examination of seventy-eight collembolan specimens from Canadian Upper Cretaceous amber. Sixty-three specimens have been identified at the generic level, none of which belongs to extant genera. All are placed within eight newly erected genera. Most of these specimens belong to a single new genus, Protoisotoma, of the family Isotomidae. Also included are members of the broadly construed families Sminthuridae, Neanuridae, and Tomoceridae. Re-examination of the type of Protentomobrya reaffirms its separate familial status. One additional specimen of an undescribed genus is placed in a new family. These data support a probable extinction of the Canadian arboreal Collembola fauna at the end of the Cretaceous. .