Ninon Robin

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS

Tardigrades are a diverse group of charismatic microscopic invertebrates that are best known for their ability to survive extreme conditions. Despite their long evolutionary history and global distribution in both aquatic and terrestrial environments, the tardigrade fossil record is exceedingly sparse. Molecular clocks estimate that tardigrades div...

Peracarida (e.g. woodlice and side-swimmers) are, together with their sister-group Eucarida (e.g. krill and decapods), the most speciose group of modern crustaceans, suggested to have appeared as early as the Ordovician. While eucarids' incursion onto land consists of mainly freshwater and littoral grounds, some peracarids have evolved fully terres...

Because it is biased compared to the reality of ancient life, the fossil record requires specific terminology when dealing with possible ancient biological associations of organisms. Among the range of interactions between ancient organisms, paleosymbioses are noticeable representatives of paleoecological diversities and key elements to understand...

Symbiosis [1], understood as prolonged interspecific association, is as ancient as the eukaryotic cell [2, 3]. A variety of such associations have been reported in the continental fossil record, albeit sporadically. As for mites, which as a group have been present since the Devonian (ca. 390 mya) [4, 5] and are involved in a tremendous variety of m...

Numerous arthropods (e.g. branchiopods, insects) collected during the first half of the 20th century by F.-F. Mathieu within the Pennsylvanian–Cisuralian (Moscovian–Asselian) succession of the Zhaogezhuang colliery (Hebei Province, China), romanised notably as Chao Ko Chwang, or Chaokochuang, in the literature, have been recently located in the pal...

Large chelipeds and cheliped fragments of brachyuran crabs associated with dinosaur (ornithopodan) remains from Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) continental deposits of Velaux and vicinity (southern France) were described and named as a new genus and species by Van Bakel, Hyžný, Valentin & Robin in Robin et al. (2019). However, the journal issue in whi...

The terrestrialization process by vertebrates occurred during the Devonian period, with fully land-dwelling tetrapods recorded in the Carboniferous. Thus, the Late Devonian is an important period for deciphering the ecological pressures that applied during the water-to-land transition. Higher predation pressures in the underwater environment have b...

In the 19th century, natural mummies of amphibians were discovered in the Quercy Phosphorites. The specific collection site was never formally reported, which hampers precise dating of these specimens. Still, the name Bufo servatus was erected based on the external morphology of one of the mummified specimens. A tomography of a similarly preserved...

Les phosphorites du Quercy forment un ensemble de gisements phosphatés ayant livré une importante faune, couvrant la transition Eocène-Oligocène. Au sein de ces gisements, les restes osseux d’amphibiens sont nombreux, bien que majoritairement isolés. En 1873, plusieurs spécimens d’amphibiens et de serpents en furent extraits, présentant une fossili...

Peracarida (e.g., woodlice & side-swimmers) are, together with their sister-group Eucarida (e.g. krill & decapods), the most speciose group of modern crustaceans, suggested to have appeared as early as the Ordovician. While the incursion of eucarids onto land consists of mainly freshwater and littoral grounds, some peracarids have evolved fully ter...

In the XIXth century, natural mummies of amphibians were discovered in the Quercy Phosphorites. The specific collection site has never been formally reported, which hampered precisely dating these specimens. The name Bufo servatus was erected for one these mummies, based on the external morphology of the specimen.The tomography of similarly preserv...

Well-known for its Palaeocene terrestrial flora, the travertine deposit of Sézanne (Marne, Champagne, France) has also yielded a small number of well-preserved crustaceans, including isopods. In 1868, a single specimen of these isopods has been described by the French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards who remarked on its resemblance to the common be...

With approximately 1,500 extant species, freshwater crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) are among the most diverse decapod crustaceans. Nevertheless, their fossil record is extremely limited: only Potamidae, Potamonautidae and Trichodactylidae are reported up to the Eocene of the Neotropics so far. This work documents unusually large decapod claws from the...

Background: Dispersal is essential for terrestrial organisms living in disjunct habitats and constitutes a significant challenge for the evolution of wingless taxa. Springtails (Collembola), the sister-group of all insects (with Diplura), are reported since the Lower Devonian and are thought to have originally been subterranean. The order Symphyple...

Background: Dispersal is essential for terrestrial organisms living in disjunct habitats and constitutes a significant challenge for the evolution of wingless taxa. Springtails (Collembola), the sister-group of all insects (with Diplura), are reported since the Lower Devonian and are thought to have originally been subterranean. The order Symphyple...

Background: Dispersal is essential for terrestrial organisms living in disjunct habitats and constitutes a significant challenge for the evolution of wingless taxa. Springtails (Collembola), the sister-group of all insects (with Diplura), are reported since the Lower Devonian and are thought to have originally been subterranean. The order Symphyple...

With approximately 1,500 extant species, freshwater crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) are among the most diverse decapod crustaceans. Nevertheless, their fossil record is extremely limited: only Potamidae, Potamonautidae and Trichodactylidae are reported up to the Eocene of the Neotropics so far. This work documents unusually large decapod claws from the...

Background: Dispersal is essential for terrestrial organisms living in disjunct habitats and constitutes a significant challenge for the evolution of wingless taxa. Springtails (Collembola), the sister-group of all insects (with dipluran), are reported since the Lower Devonian and thought to have originally been subterranean. The order Symphypleona...

Dispersal is essential for terrestrial organisms living in disjunct habitats and constitutes a significant challenge for the evolution of wingless taxa. Springtails (Collembola), the sister-group of all insects (with dipluran), are reported since the Lower Devonian and thought to have originally been subterranean. The order Symphypleona is reported...

Thousands of silicified wood fragments were recently collected from the middle Cenomanian of Vienne in western France at less than 10 km away from a historical locality where in 1870 the French geologist Alphonse Le Touzé de Longuemar reported silicified wood. The plant assemblage is very diverse, and includes several species of ferns, conifers, an...

Exceptional and extremely rare preservation of soft parts, eyes, or syn-vivo associations provide crucial palaeoecological information on fossil-rich deposits. Here we present exceptionally preserved specimens of the polychelidan lobster Voulteryon parvulus, from the Jurassic of La Voulte-sur-Rhône Fossil-Lagerstätte, France, bearing eyes with hexa...

Softwoods constitute an important part of the plant macro-remains that are found within the Carboniferous to the most recent fossil deposits. Their taxonomical study is mostly made possible thanks to classical references (Philips 1948, Greguss 1955, Esteban 2004, Philippe & Bamford 2008). As for hardwoods, in addition to similar standard publicatio...

Teredinidae are obligate xylophagous bivalves that colonize drift wood. They display a highly derived anatomy with a reduced shell; most of their body consists of soft tissues. Consequently, fossil teredinids mostly correspond to burrows, shells or small terminal aragonite structures called ‘pallets’. We report, from mid-Cretaceous logs of the Envi...

Kerguelen Islands are predominantly volcanic lands, thus fossil references are very uncommon. However, its Miocene fossils are of specific interest for understanding migration routes of some taxa during the Cenozoic, given the intermediary position of Kerguelen with various continents. Despite this fossil rarity, we studied herein hundreds of nodul...

Appendix of the article Revision of Dromilites bucklandii (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura): Type material revealing its real identity, a junior synonym, and a new species.

Some of the fossil crabs from the lower Eocene London Clay have recently been the subject of several revisions, among them the exquisitely preserved dromiid (sponge) crabs. We examined Milne Edwards’ original type material of Dromilites bucklandii, which appears different from all subsequently figured specimens by later authors. The type of D. buck...

Epibionts are uniquely valuable in their ability to constrain paleoecological hypotheses about their own as well as their host’s behavior and environment. Rarely preserved epizoic bryozoans are here reported on fossil crabs from the Miocene Mishan Formation in the Zagros Basin of southwestern Iran. One-hundred-thirty-eight decapod crustaceans were...

The Kerguelen Islands possess rare fossil localities. Those that do occur yield marine invertebrates of Miocene age, including decapod crustaceans. These crabs correspond to a new monospecific assemblage (Brachyura, Cancridae) preserved in approximately one hundred phosphate nodules. Some specimens reveal exceptional preservation of fragile interna...

Teredinidae, also known as shipworms, are obligate xylophagous bivalves that colonise driftwood. The valves of xylophagous bivalves are highly derived and reduced in size relative to other bivalves. Key mineralized features of xylophagous bivalve anatomy are terminal aragonitic structures (pallets) and calcitic linings. The vast majority of their a...

Wood identification is a common task for many palaeobotanists. The production of this secondary tissue began during the Devonian and evolved independently in several major lineages of vascular plants since then. Wood composition and toughness usually ensure its fossilization, in many cases without major deformation. Numerous atlases or publications...

As the lowermost stage of the Palaeogene, the Danian is a key period for ecosystems which followed the K-Pg boundary. The Vigny quarry (Val d’Oise, France) is a co-stratotype of the Danian stage, along with the well-known one of Fakse (Denmark). The Vigny ecosystem (Bois-des-Roches site at Vigny and allied Danian localities) is the only known Cenoz...

Supplementary information of article Scale insect larvae preserved in vertebrate coprolites (Le Quesnoy, France, Lower Eocene): paleoecological insights

Coprolites of terrestrial vertebrates from the Sparnacian Le Quesnoy locality (Ypresian, Eocene, MP7, 53 Ma; Oise, France) were examined for possible parasitic helminth eggs. The extraction of the coprolite components was performed by a weak acetolyse and a slide mounting in glycerin. This long examination did not reveal paleoparasite remains, whic...

A paguroid, Lessinipagurus vasjamikuzi sp. nov., is described from Eocene (upper Bartonian-lower Priabonian) of Istria, on the basis of a single right chela from Gračišće near Pazin, western Croatia. The specimen originates from beds of olistostrome breccias that formed in a bathyal setting. In addition, a new genus, Prexylopagurus, accommodated in...

Newly collected decapod material from the Cap de Naze Formation (middleeupper Maastrichtian), Senegal, allows description of a new species of Costacopluma (Brachyura: Retroplumidae), which is older than Costacopluma senegalensis (Remy in Gorodiski & Remy, 1959) from the Paleocene of Senegal and documents that the genus survived the end Cretaceous e...

Interspecific associations are key events in species evolution. Hence, detection of these contact associations in the fossil record is of special interest. Fossilised epibioses, namely organisms (-biosis) attached on other fossil organisms (-epi), provide access to possible preserved external palaeosymbioses. Decapod crustaceans as hosts constitute...

The earliest known crabs are of Early and Middle Jurassic age; in general, they are rare. Here we describe a new species of homolodromioid from the late Bathonian of Sarthe (France), based on a single dorsal carapace, Tanidromites raboeufi n. sp. This specimen has mostly well-preserved cuticle, and shows two episkeletozoans (bryozoan colonies) on i...

Evidencing ancient interspecific associations in the fossil record may be challenging, particularly when bacterial organisms have most likely been degraded during diagenesis. Yet, documenting ancient interspecific associations may provide valuable insights into paleoenvironmental conditions and paleocommunities. Here, we report the multiscale chara...

Using microscopy and spectroscopy tools, we succeeded in identifying undescribed diminutive epibionts (as epibiotic bacterial colonies) both on exceptionally well-preserved fossil shrimps and on extant taxa (N. Robin, S. Bernard, J. Miot, M.-M. Blanc-Valleron, S. Charbonnier & G. Petit, submitted). This study outlines the ecological parameters of t...

In the present life there are plenty of organisms associated with the integument of fishes; they can be commensals, mutualists or parasites (durable interactions). In the fossil record, it is very rare to find such associations although the fishes’ integument is often very well preserved in exceptional conservation sites (Konservat - Lagerstätten)....

Symbioses such as mutualism, commensalism and parasitism are crucial factors for evolutionary strategies and innovations. Symbioses are well studied in the extant species and are called “durable interactions” (Combes, 1995). In the fossil record, symbioses are more difficult to study due to several factors (Feldmann, 2003). Intrinsic factors includ...