Paradoryphoribius


Paradoryphoribius is an extinct genus of tardigrades from the order Parachela. It is the third fossil tardigrade to be named, described in 2021 from Miocene Dominican amber from the Dominican Republic. The type, and currently only species, is P. chronocaribbeus.

Discovery and naming

The holotype was discovered in Miocene Dominican amber from the Dominican Republic. The amber specimen also contains three ants, a beetle, and a flower.
Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus was named and described by Mapalo et al., making it the first extinct tardigrade known from the Cenozoic and is also the first tardigrade known from the Miocene.

Description

It has a length of 539 microns.

Classification

In their description of Aerobius dactylus, Mapalo, Wolfe & Ortega-Hernández phylogenetically analyzed a combination of morphological features and rRNA sequences of multiple known tardigrade species. They recovered Paradoryphorybius as the sister taxon of Hexapodibius micronyx. These results are displayed in the cladogram below, with extinct species designated with a dagger :