Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 75, núm. 3, A091023, 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2023v75n3a091023

First biological inclusion in Upper Cretaceous Texas amber, USA

Primera inclusión biológica en ámbar del Cretácico Superior de Texas, EUA

Paulina Cifuentes-Ruiz¹, Virginia Friedman², Joseph B. Lambert³, George Mustoe⁴,

Alejandro Bugarin⁵, Francisco J. Vega^6,*

¹ Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

² 1000 Walnut Place, Mansfield, Texas 76063, USA.

³ Trinity University, Department of Chemistry, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA.

⁴ Western Washington University, Geology Department, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA.

⁵ Florida Gulf Coast University, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Fort Myers, FL 33965, USA.

⁶ Instituto de Geología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City 04510, Mexico.

* Corresponding author: (F.J. Vega) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How to cite this article:

Cifuentes-Ruiz, P., Friedman, V., Lambert, J. B., Mustoe, G., Bugarin, A., Vega, F. J., 2023, First biological inclusion in Upper Cretaceous Texas amber, USA: Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, 75 (3), A091023. http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2023v75n3a091023

Manuscript received: August 11, 2023; Corrected manuscript received: October 9, 2023; Manuscript accepted: October 15, 2023.

ABSTRACT

The first biological inclusion in Cretaceous (Cenomanian) amber from Texas (USA) is here documented. Most of the Cretaceous ambers with biological inclusions are from Europe (Spain, France) and Myanmar (Asia). Although the coleopteran here reported is microscopic and incomplete, it preserves enough morphological details to be identified as a member of the Family Ptinidae Latreille, 1802. This antecedent is significative and reveals the potential of this Cretaceous amber to contain more diverse bioinclusions, since the paleoenvironment suggested by the sediments that contain the amber and the ecological affinity of recent representatives of the Ptinidae suggest a humid forest near an estuary, associated to deltaic plain deposits. Este hallazgo representa la inclusión biológica en ámbar más antigua en las Americas.

Keywords: Coleoptera, Ptinidae, Cenomanian, fossil resin.