Oldest rove beetle in the Omaliini tribe found in French amber
Thursday, July 31, 2014 - 12:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
An international team of scientists from Spain, France, and the U.S. has discovered and described a rove beetle that is the oldest definitive member of the tribe Omaliini that has ever been found in amber. The discovery and description were made possible through the use of the propagation phase-contrast X-ray synchrotron imaging technique, which allows the detailed study of otherwise invisible specimens in opaque amber. The new species is described in the journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America in an article called "Oldest Omaliini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Omaliinae) Discovered in the Opaque Cretaceous Amber of Charentes."