The oldest fossil species of the rove beetle subfamily Oxyporinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) from the Early Cretaceous (Yixian Formation, China) and its phylogenetic significance

摘要

Oxyporus yixianus Solodovnikov & Yue sp. nov., a new Early Cretaceous fossil rove beetle species, is described from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province, China. It is clearly placed in Oxyporus Fabricius, 1775, the extant and only genus of the subfamily Oxyporinae. In addition to the hitherto-known, much younger fossils of Oxyporinae, the significantly older age of this newly discovered species makes the currently accepted phylogenetic hypothesis that Oxyporinae is a basal lineage of the Staphylininae group more plausible. The remarkably modern and specialization-rich morphology of Oxyporus yixianus leads to the assumption that this species exemplifies a rather derived stage of divergence of Oxyporinae from the stem of the Staphylininae group. Divergence of Oxyporinae from the rest of the Staphylininae group lineage may have begun significantly earlier than the Early Cretaceous, and the fungus-associated biology of Oxyporinae is also apparently older than documented by Oxyporus yixianus.