Title |
Extreme adaptations for probable visual courtship behaviour in a Cretaceous dancing damselfly
|
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Published in |
Scientific Reports, March 2017
|
DOI | 10.1038/srep44932 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Daran Zheng, André Nel, Edmund A. Jarzembowski, Su-Chin Chang, Haichun Zhang, Fangyuan Xia, Haoying Liu, Bo Wang |
Abstract |
Courtship behaviours, frequent among modern insects, have left extremely rare fossil traces. None are known previously for fossil odonatans. Fossil traces of such behaviours are better known among the vertebrates, e.g. the hypertelic antlers of the Pleistocene giant deer Megaloceros giganteus. Here we describe spectacular extremely expanded, pod-like tibiae in males of a platycnemidid damselfly from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Such structures in modern damselflies, help to fend off other suitors as well as attract mating females, increasing the chances of successful mating. Modern Platycnemidinae and Chlorocyphidae convergently acquired similar but less developed structures. The new findings provide suggestive evidence of damselfly courtship behaviour as far back as the mid-Cretaceous. These data show an unexpected morphological disparity in dancing damselfly leg structure, and shed new light on mechanisms of sexual selection involving intra- and intersex reproductive competition during the Cretaceous. |
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Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Japan | 4 | 13% |
Sweden | 1 | 3% |
Singapore | 1 | 3% |
Netherlands | 1 | 3% |
United States | 1 | 3% |
Russia | 1 | 3% |
Mexico | 1 | 3% |
Germany | 1 | 3% |
Brazil | 1 | 3% |
Other | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 17 | 57% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 26 | 87% |
Scientists | 4 | 13% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Unknown | 45 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Student > Ph. D. Student | 10 | 22% |
Researcher | 7 | 16% |
Student > Master | 4 | 9% |
Other | 3 | 7% |
Professor | 3 | 7% |
Other | 5 | 11% |
Unknown | 13 | 29% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
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Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 21 | 47% |
Environmental Science | 3 | 7% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 1 | 2% |
Earth and Planetary Sciences | 1 | 2% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 1 | 2% |
Other | 1 | 2% |
Unknown | 17 | 38% |