INSECT MEALS FROM A LEPTODACTYLID FROG (AMPHIBIA: LEPTODACTYIDAE) IN DOMINICAN AMBER (MIOCENE, 23 MA)

摘要

Dominican amber is renowned for both its clarity and taxonomic breadth of biological inclusions. Nearly every insect order and a variety of small vertebrates have been found in Dominican amber. Though insects are sometimes observed with vertebrate inclusions, most are not directly associated with the vertebrate, simply being victims of the same entombment. A few vertebrates have been observed with dipteran larvae surrounding them (Grimaldi, 1996; Poinar and Cannatella, 1987), showing that the decay was in progress when entombment occurred. The stomach contents consisting of several distinct insect meals of a leptodactylid frog in 23 million-year-old Dominican Amber is herein described, and is the first direct evidence of insects associated with a vertebrate during its lifetime.