Oryctoantiquus borealis, New Genus And Species From The Eocene Of Oregon, U. S. A., The World’ S Oldest Fossil Dynastine And Largest Fossil Scarabaeid (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae)
Author
Ratcliffe, Brett C.
Systematics Research Collections W- 436 Nebraska Hall University of Nebraska Lincoln, NE 68588 - 0514, U. S. A.
bratcliffe1@unl.edu
Author
Smith, Dena M.
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History UCB 265, University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309, U. S. A.
Dena.Smith@colorado.edu
Author
Erwin, Diane
Museum of Paleontology 1101 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. University of California Berkeley, CA 94720, U. S. A.
dmerwin@uclink4.berkeley.edu
text
The Coleopterists Bulletin
2005
2005-03-01
59
1
127
135
journal article
10.1649/0010-065x(2005)059[0127:obngas]2.0.co;2
1938-4394
4924192
Oryctoantiquus
Ratcliffe and Smith
,
new genus
Type
Species.
Oryctoantiquus borealis
Ratcliffe and Smith.
Diagnosis.
The same as for the monotypic species,
Oryctoantiquus borealis
. The pattern of punctures on the metasternum, combined with the large body size and form of the posterior legs, distinguishes
Oryctoantiquus
from other genera in the tribe
Oryctini
.
Fig. 1.
Oryctoantiquus borealis
. Scale bar equals 10 mm.
Etymology.
The generic name is derived from the Greek
oryktes
, meaning digger (also the stem of the dynastine tribal name
Oryctini
), and the Latin
antiquus
, meaning old; hence the ‘‘old digger’’ or ‘‘old oryctine’’ in reference to the 45 million year old age of the fossil and the tribe to which we assign it.