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''Arostropsis'' is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of broad-nosed weevil
The Entiminae are a large subfamily in the weevil family Curculionidae, containing most of the short-nosed weevils, including such genera as ''Entimus'', ''Otiorhynchus'', ''Phyllobius'', ''Sitona'', and ''Pachyrhynchus, Pachyrrhynchus''. In co ...
in the beetle
Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...
family Curculionidae
The Curculionidae are a family of weevils, commonly called snout beetles or true weevils. They are one of the largest animal families with 6,800 genera and 83,000 species described worldwide. They are the sister group to the family Brentidae.
Th ...
known from an Upper Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', 'Dawn') an ...
fossil found in Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. The genus contains a single described species, ''Arostropsis groehni''.
History and classification
''Arostropsis'' is known only from a single fossil, theholotype
A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
, specimen number "C 7968, GPIH 4516", which is housed in the fossil collection of the Geology and Palaeontology Institute and Museum, part of the University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...
. The specimen is composed of a fully complete adult male broad-nosed weevil which has been preserved as an inclusion
Inclusion or Include may refer to:
Sociology
* Social inclusion, action taken to support people of different backgrounds sharing life together.
** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabilities sharing various aspects of lif ...
in a transparent chunk of Baltic amber
Baltic amber or succinite is amber from the Baltic region, home of its largest known deposits. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that this forested region provided the re ...
. Baltic amber dates to between forty and forty-five million years old and the holotype specimen was found in the Prussian Formation. The ''Arostropsis'' holotype was recovered from an amber quarry in Jantarny near the city of Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad,. known as Königsberg; ; . until 1946, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an Enclave and exclave, exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland ( west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Prego ...
along the Baltic Sea coast in Russia. The fossil was first studied by paleoentomologists Nikolai N. Yunakov and Alexander G. Kirejtshuk, both of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...
. Yunakov and Kirejtshuk's 2011 type description
A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...
of the new genus and species was published in the online journal ''ZooKeys
''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the founding editor-in-chief was Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian ...
''. The genus name ''Arostropsis'' was coined by Yunakov and Kirejtshuk as a combination of two Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
words ''rōstron'' meaning "beak or snout" and ''opsis'' which means "resembling (something)" in combination with the negative prefix ''a''. The specific epithet
In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...
''groehni'' was coined in honor of Carsten Gröhn who first collected the holotype specimen. ''Arostropsis'' is one of a number of broad-nosed weevils described from specimens in Baltic amber. As of the 2011 Yunakov and Kirejtshuk paper, at least eleven species had been described or suggested by paleoentomologists.
Description
The ''Arostropsis'' male adult has an overall coloration which appears to be metallic green and that is caused by numerous small lanceolate scales coating the legs and sides of the body. The male has an elongated body which is in length, tall, and with an overall width of . Therostrum
Rostrum may refer to:
* Any kind of a platform for a speaker:
**dais
**pulpit
** podium
* Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects
* Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...
is approximately one and a half times as long as it is wide and is noted for being narrower than the rest of the head. Only the left mandible
In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla).
The jawbone i ...
is still present and attached to the head and the tip section has a distinct curve and the mandible as a whole has a knife like shape. The legs are elongated and with the protibiae hosting a row of slender spines. The tip of the tibia, called the corbel, is open, lacking a second row of spines. ''Arostropsis'' is distinguished from the modern genera of Naupactini that have open corbels by the narrow rostrom and morphology of the antennae.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4795596 Entiminae Eocene insects of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2011 Insects of Russia Baltic amber Monotypic prehistoric insect genera