Baltic amber (NHM Basel collection) (Eocene of Russian Federation)

Where: Russian Federation (54.9° N, 19.9° E: paleocoordinates 53.9° N, 15.2° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Priabonian (38.0 - 33.9 Ma)

• According to Aleksandrova and Zaporozhets (2008), the higher parts of the Prussian Formation (including the Blaue Erde or Blue Earth) belong to the Charlesdowniea clathrata angulosa dinocyst Zone. Based on its index species, this zone is concurrent to Zone W13 established in the Parisian basin (Châteauneuf and Gruas-Cavagnetto 1978), where it is correlated with nannoplankton zones NP18–NP21 (Powell, 1992) of the Priabonian. In the Paleogene zonation of northwestern Europe, the first occurrence of Thalassiphora fenestrata is designated at the base of the dinocyst Subzone D12b (36.20 +/- 0.1 Ma), which is correlated with zones NP18 (terminal part)–NP20 of the Priabonian (Luterbacher et al., 2004).

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; amber

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: soft parts, original chitin, amber

Collection methods: Repository: Natural History Museum in Basel (NHMB)

Primary reference: A. Viertler, K. Urfer, G. Schulz, S. Klopfstein, and T. Spasojevic. 2023. Impact of increasing morphological information by micro‑CT scanning on the phylogenetic placement of Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) in amber. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 142(30) [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 232263: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 04.11.2023

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Insecta
 Hymenoptera - Ichneumonidae
? Xorides romeo n. sp., Osparvis aurorae n. gen. n. sp., Grana harveydenti n. gen. n. sp., Rhyssa gulliveri n. sp.
? Xorides romeo n. sp. Viertler and Klopfstein 2024 ichneumon wasp
NMB F3849
Osparvis aurorae n. gen. n. sp. Viertler et al. 2024 ichneumon wasp
NMB F3847
Grana harveydenti n. gen. n. sp. Viertler et al. 2024 ichneumon wasp
NMB F3848
Rhyssa gulliveri n. sp. Viertler et al. 2023 ichneumon wasp
NHMB F02444