deciphering their diversity and evolutionary history

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Asiloid Flies
deciphering their diversity and evolutionary history

Sample of Asiloid Flies

News - April 2014

28 April, 2014 - 00:00 -- DikowT

Two new fossil species of Asilidae from the Cretaceous have been described by Torsten Dikow and David Grimaldi, i.e., Burmapogon bruckschi (from 100 myo Burmese amber) and Cretagaster raritanensis (from 90–94 myo Raritan amber). The article was published in the American Museum Novitates and can be accessed via the DOI (10.1206/3799.1). The photographs can be viewed on MorphBank (image collection 832153) and the figure of the phylogenetic placement of these fossils can be viewed on figshare (DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.1004890). The ZooBank records can be accessed here: Burmapogon bruckschi; Cretagaster raritanensis.

A press release by the Smithsonian National Musuem of Natural History on April 21 (read it here) sparked quite a bit of interest from diverse media. Here is a list of links to some of the coverage:

Smithsonian Science - Phys.org - Sci-news.com - Huffington Post - io9.com - InTheCapital