Dominican amber, La Toca (MCZ coll) (Miocene to of Dominican Republic)

Where: Dominican Republic (19.5° N, 70.6° W: paleocoordinates 19.4° N, 69.5° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Burdigalian to Burdigalian (20.4 - 13.8 Ma)

• Age controversial, with the youngest proposed age of 20-15 mya based on foraminifera and the oldest as 45-30 mya based on coccoliths. Most of the amber is secondarily deposited in turbiditic sandstones.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; amber

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: soft parts, original chitin, amber

Reposited in the MCZ

Primary reference: E. O. Wilson. 1985. Ants of the Dominican Amber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) 3. The Subfamily Dolichoderinae. Psyche 92(1):17-37 [C. Labandeira/C. Labandeira/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 138700: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 25.01.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Insecta
 Hymenoptera - Formicidae
"Hypoclinea primitiva" = Dolichoderus primitivus, Azteca alpha, "Iridomyrmex hispaniolae" = Technomyrmex hispaniolae, Anochetus brevidentatus n. sp.3, Pheidole tethepa n. sp.5, Cephalotes squamosus1, "Exocryptocerus serratus" = Cephalotes serratus4, "Leptothorax caritatis n. sp." = Nesomyrmex caritatis2
"Hypoclinea primitiva" = Dolichoderus primitivus Wilson 1985 ant
Azteca alpha Wilson 1985 ant
540 specimens from all collections but not divided
"Iridomyrmex hispaniolae" = Technomyrmex hispaniolae Wilson 1985 ant
27 specimens from all collections but not divided
Anochetus brevidentatus n. sp.3 MacKay 1991 ant
MCZ, La Toca mine
Pheidole tethepa n. sp.5 Wilson 1985 ant
Cephalotes squamosus1 Vierbergen and Scheven 1995 ant
MCZC-18, 19
"Exocryptocerus serratus" = Cephalotes serratus4 Vierbergen and Scheven 1995 ant
MCZC-2,11 (paratypes); 9,13,16 in de Andrade & Baroni Urbani
"Leptothorax caritatis n. sp." = Nesomyrmex caritatis2 de Andrade 1999 ant