''Syndesus ambericus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species of

stag beetle Stag beetles are a family of about 1,200 species of beetles in the family Lucanidae, currently classified in four subfamilies.Smith, A.B.T. (2006). A review of the family-group names for the superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera) with corrections ...

s in the subfamily

Syndesinae Syndesinae is a subfamily of stag beetles in the family Lucanidae. There are at least two genera and four described species in Syndesinae. Genera These two genera belong to the subfamily Syndesinae: * '' Ceruchus'' MacLeay, 1819 * '' Sinodendron ...

known from a single possibly Miocene fossil found on

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

. ''S. ambericus'' is the first species of stag beetle to have been described from fossils found in Dominican amber and is one of four species from amber, and the only stag beetle species known from the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

History and classification

''Syndesus ambericus'' is known from a single fossil insect which is an inclusion in a transparent chunk of Dominican amber. The amber was produced by the extinct ''

Hymenaea protera ''Hymenaea protera'' is an extinct prehistoric leguminous tree, the probable ancestor of present-day ''Hymenaea'' species. Most neotropical ambers come from its fossilized resin, including the famous Dominican amber. ''H. protera'' once grew in ...

'', which formerly grew on

, across northern South America and up to southern Mexico. The fossil was first noted as interesting in 1983 in a private amber collection in the Dominican Republic. It was subsequently reported as an unidentified lucanid in a 1992 paper. Between the first examination in 1983 and reexamination of the fossil in 1998 the fossil was broken and subsequently repaired. The holotype amber specimen, number 502873, is currently housed in the Department of Paleobiology in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The holotype fossil is composed of a complete adult individual that was collected from an amber mine, possibly the Palo Quemado mine, in fossil bearing rocks of the Cordillera Septentrional mountains, northern Dominican Republic. The amber dates from at least the Burdigalian stage of the Miocene, based on studying the associated fossil foraminifera and may be as old as the Middle Eocene, based on the associated fossil coccoliths. This age range due to the host rock being secondary deposits for the amber and the Miocene the age range is only the youngest that it might be. The fossil was examined by entomologist Robert E. Woodruff of the Florida State Collection of Arthropods. Woodruff's 2009

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have ...

of the new species was published in the

entomology Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...

systematics journal ''Insecta Mundi''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''ambericus'' is in recognition of the amber mining company Amberica, which has helped to bring notable amber fossils to the attention of paleontologists.

Description

The ''Syndesus ambericus'' holotype is a male with a total length of and a height of and having an overall convex, cylindrical shaped body. The coloration of ''S. ambericus'' is not described in the type description, and only a mention of golden colored hairs along the

fore-wing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwin ...

margins is made. The head has antennae that are composed of at least an unknown number of segments with the seven visible segments modified into a lamellate structure. The broad head sports two, nearly round, large eyes and sharp projections placed in front of them. As is typical for members for lucanids, the mandibles are highly modified into horn like structures. They are elongated to two thirds the length of the pronotum with symmetrical structure and bearing three teeth. A small projection at the front edge of the pronotum is present but not notably developed and the pronotum is lined with punctation, pits on the surface. The overall morphology is very similar to the living species '' Syndesus cornutus'', which is native to Australia, making the placement of the species in ''Syndesus'' firm. The two species are distinguished by the mandible features, with ''S. cornutus'' having longer mandibles that have only two teeth. ''S. cornutus'' has less continuous punctures on the pronotum and a much larger projection at the front edge.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7662294 †Syndesus ambericus Prehistoric beetles

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species). It is one of the modern descendan ...

Burdigalian life Neogene Dominican Republic Miocene insects of North America Prehistoric insects of the Caribbean

Fossils of the Dominican Republic Dominican amber Fossil taxa described in 2009