Termite colonies from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar demonstrate their early eusocial lifestyle in damp wood  

作　　者：Zhipeng Zhao Xiangchu Yin Chungkun Shih Taiping Gao Dong Ren 

机构地区：[1]College of Life Sciences,Capital Normal University,Beijing 100048,China [2]Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Xining 810008,China [3]Department of Paleobiology,National Museum of Natural History,Smithsonian Institution,Washington,DC,20013-7012,USA

出　　处：《National Science Review》2020年第2期381-390,共10页国家科学评论（英文版）

基　　金：the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31730087,41688103 and 31872277);the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University(IRT-17R75);Support Project of High-level Teachers in Beijing Municipal Universities(No.IDHT20180518);the Beijing Natural Science Foundation(5182004).

摘　　要：Insect eusociality is characterized by cooperative brood care;reproductive division oflabour and multiple generations of adults within a colony.The morphological specializations of the different termite castes from Burmese amber were recently reported,indicating the termites possessed advanced sociality in the mid-Cretaceous.Unfortunately;all the reported Cretaceous termites are individually preserved,which does not cover the behaviours of the cooperative brood care and multiple generations of adults in the nests of the Cretaceous termites.Herein,we report three eusocial aggregations from colonies of the oldest known Stolotermitidae,Cosmotermes gen.nov.,in 100 Ma mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber.One large aggregation,comprising 8 soldiers,56 workers/pseudergates and 25 immatures of different instars,additionally presents the behaviours of cooperative brood care and overlapping generations.Furthermore;taphonomic evidence indicates Cosmotermes most probably dwelled in damp/rotting wood;which provides a broader horizon of the early societies and ecology of the eusocial Cosmotermes.

关 键 词：aggregation Termitoidae Stolotermitidae^cooperative BROOD care CASTE 

分 类 号：Q915[天文地球—古生物学与地层学]