TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Scientists report the fossil of a Bee which lived about 49 million years ago are so well preserved that the insect looks like it can spread its strikingly patterned wing covers.
Penutup sayap, atau elytra, adalah salah satu bagian paling kuat dari kerangka luar kumbang, tetapi meskipun demikian, tingkat kontras warna dan kejelasan dalam fosil ini sangat jarang, para ilmuwan baru-baru ini melaporkan, sebagaimana dikutip Live Science, Sabtu, 14 Agustus 2021.
Desain indah pada elytra kumbang kuno itu mendorong para peneliti untuk menamakannya Pulchritudo attenboroughi, atau Kecantikan Attenborough, meniru nama naturalis terkenal dan pembawa acara televisi Sir David Attenborough. Mereka menulis dalam sebuah studi baru bahwa polanya adalah "pewarnaan berbasis pigmen yang paling terawetkan yang dikenal pada fosil kumbang."
Ketika para peneliti menggambarkan keindahan kumbang itu, fosil itu sudah ada di koleksi Museum Alam dan Sains Denver (DMNS) di Colorado, di mana ia telah dipajang sejak diidentifikasi pada tahun 1995.
Paleontologists found fossils that year in the Green River Formation; Formerly a group of lakes, this rich fossil site spans Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, and dates back to the Eocene epoch (55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago).
Scientists initially classified the fossil as a long-horned beetle in the genus Cerambycidae. But despite its similar body shape to that of the long-horned beetle, its hind legs are very short and stubby, which has the museum’s senior curator of entomology – Frank-Thorsten Krell, lead author of the new study – questioning whether the beetles might belong to a different group.
In the study, the authors describe the beetle as a new genus in a subfamily known for its powerful hind legs: the frog-legged leaf beetle. The fossilized insect, a female, is only the second example of a frog-legged leaf beetle found in North America, Krell told Live Science (no modern beetles in this group live in North America today, according to the study).
On the back of P. attenboroughi, a dark, symmetrical circle pattern stands out in sharp contrast against the light background. This suggests that the bold pattern was present in the beetles at least 50 million years ago, the researchers report.
For a beetle to fossilize as well as this one, “you need very fine-grained sediment,” Krell says. Mud or clay at the bottom of a lake is the best substrate for fossilized insects, and the beetle must sink to the muddy bottom of the lake before its body disintegrates. “And then it shouldn’t decompose, so the oxygen-poor environment at the bottom of the lake really helps,” he said.
However, questions remain about how the sediment at the bottom of the lake retains the beetle’s high-contrast colors so vividly, Krell added. DMNS visitors can admire P. attenboroughi, as the renamed fossil is again on display at the museum’s “Prehistoric Journey” exhibit, representatives said in a statement. The findings were published Aug. 6 in the journal Papers in Paleontology.
LIVE SCIENCE | EZ
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