Lichtgedanken 03

S C HW E R P U N K T 51 03 | LICHT GEDANKEN dition, it appears that this little beetle had stopped living under tree bark, the habitat favoured by its contemporaries, and had adopted a much more exposed lifestyle on plants. A significant fact is that, due to its unorthodox combinati- on of ancestral and modern characteri- stics, this genus does not fit in any of the four suborders of beetles that still exist, which is why Yan and Beutel have given it the nickname »Bad Boy«. » Ponomarenkia belmonthensis shows abo- ve all that the first major events of ra- diation in the evolution of beetles took place before the Permian-Triassic mass extinction,« says Rolf Beutel. Beetles as a whole survived this dramatic event, which saw the acidification of the seas and major volcanic eruptions, consider- ably better than most other groups of or- ganisms—presumably because of their terrestrial life style and hardened exos- keleton. However, the »Bad Boy« ran out of luck, as there are no more traces of its existence in the Mesozoic era. The Jena researchers dedicated the ge- nus and family to Moscow palaeonto- logist Prof. Alexander G. Ponomarenko. He has had a strong influence on beetle palaeontology for decades and supervi- sed Dr Evgeny V. Yan’s doctorate. It is Yan’s elaborate reconstructions on the computer that have provided the precise insights into Ponomarenkia belmonthensis . Informative 3D model was created In the first stage, some 40 photographs were taken of the two specimens, which were available as impressions on stone. »With this series of photographs an ac- curate 2D reconstruction was possible, with which we were able to correct for deformations in the original fossil. This allowed us to get closer to the ac- tual beetle,« explains Dr Yan. Based on precise drawings and with the help of a special computer program that is also used for animation and computer ga- mes, a very informative 3D model was created. »The 3D reconstruction also en- ables us to draw conclusions about the way the beetle moved and lived,« the palaeontologist adds. He has developed this method of visualisation, as well as the analytical process in which he also includes hypothetical ancestors of the beetle, since his arrival in Jena. »We have already been able to apply this process to three newly discovered ancient beetle species,« Prof. Beutel is happy to report. »In this way, we have made significant steps towards deciphering the earliest stages in the evolution of an extremely successful order of animals.« Contact Prof. Dr Rolf Beutel Institute of Evolutionary Biology Erbertstr. 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany Phone: +49 36 41 9-49 153 Email: rolf.beutel@uni-jena.de www.speziellezoologie.uni-jena.de Original Publication At the dawn of the great rise: †Ponomaren- kia belmonthensis [...]. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2017), DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2017.1343259 Insect palaeontologist Dr Evgeny V. Yan in front of the computer reconstruction of »Flat Bob«, the oldest known whirligig beetle and a contemporary of »Bad Boy«.