A revision and addition to Zopheridae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea) in Baltic amber: possible connections between modern Holarctic distributions and Eocene 'amber forests'.

One new extinct genus and six new extinct species of Zopheridae are described and illustrated from Eocene Baltic amber: Usechus andrushchenkoi Alekseev et Bukejs sp. nov., Coxelus carstengroehni Alekseev et Bukejs sp.

New Canadian amber deposit fills gap in fossil record near end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

Amber preserves an exceptional record of tiny, soft-bodied organisms and chemical environmental signatures, elucidating the evolution of arthropod lineages and the diversity, ecology, and biogeochemistry of ancient ecosystems. However, globally, fossiliferous amber deposits are rare in the latest Cretaceous and surrounding the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction. This faunal gap limits our understanding of arthropod diversity and survival across the extinction boundary.

Prolonged faunal turnover in earliest ants revealed by North American Cretaceous amber.

All ∼14,000 extant ant species descended from the same common ancestor, which lived ∼140-120 million years ago (Ma). While modern ants began to diversify in the Cretaceous, recent fossil evidence has demonstrated that older lineages concomitantly occupied the same ancient ecosystems. These early-diverging ant lineages, or stem ants, left no modern descendants; however, they dominated the fossil record throughout the Cretaceous until their ultimate extinction sometime around the K-Pg boundary.

Morphological and organic spectroscopic studies of a 44-million-year-old leaf beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in amber with endogenous remains of chitin.

This study details the quality of preservation of amber deposits in the Eocene. Through Baltic amber crack-out studies using Synchrotron Micro-Computed Tomography and Scanning Electron Microscopy it was found that the cuticle of a specimen of leaf beetle (Crepidodera tertiotertiaria (Alticini: Galerucinae: Chrysomelidae)) is exceptionally well preserved. Spectroscopic analysis using Synchrotron Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy suggests presence of degraded [Formula: see text]-chitin in multiple areas of the cuticle, and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy supports the presence of organic preservation.

Chicken's best friend? Livestock guardian dog bonding with free-ranging chickens.

Growth in the free-range and pastured egg industries has increased globally, necessitating improvements in predator control. Some egg producers are turning to the use of livestock guardian dogs (LGD; ) to protect hens from predation. We worked on a property where pastured layer hens were protected by two Maremma LGDs that were released from their chicken enclosure for 2-3 nights a week.