PaleoBios, Volume 17, Number 1, Pages 17-19, July 13,1996
The first fossil cyphoderiid testate amoeba, in Dominican Republic amber
(Eocene-Oligocene)
Benjamin M. Waggoner
Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
INTRODUCTION
The fossil record of tests known to come from
testate amoebae, or "thecamoebae", is largely lim-
ited to the Eocene and later, with the exception of
isolated finds from the Carboniferous (Loeblich and
Tappan, 1964) and Triassic (Poinar et al, 1993). This
group has received relatively little attention from
micropaleontologists. Owing to the terrestrial habi-
tat and organic composition of many amoeba tests,
their preservation potential appears low; even tests
with mineralized elements in an organic matrix ap-
pear likely to dissociate after death. There is also
the possibility of confusion of agglutinated testate
amoebae with certain unilocular foraminifera (Bolli
and Saunders, 1954). This situation is unfortunate,
since testate amoebae are important in terrestrial
and aquatic microbial ecosystems and serve as ex-
cellent bioindicators in modern litter and soil habi-
tats (Bamforth, 1980).
Terrestrial microbes, however, are preserv-
able in amber; testate amoebae known from amber
include Cretaceous forms from Kansas amber
(Waggoner, this issue) and a late Triassic test re-
sembling Centropyxis from Bavarian amber (Poinar
et al, 1993). A single test referable to the modern
genus Cyphoderia is reported here, the first such
fossil known from the extensive late Eocene-Oli-
gocene amber deposits of the northern Dominican
Republic. This is also the first report of this genus
and its family in the fossil record.
Figure 1. Photograph of Cyphoderia specimen from piece AF-9-18. Scale bar = 50 nm. Note associated dust.
Page 18
First Fossil Cyphoderiid
Waggoner
TAXONOMIC DESCRIPTION
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Filosea
Order Gromiida
Suborder Euglyphina
Family Cyphoderiidae De Saedeleer, 1934
Genus Cyphoderia Schlumberger, 1845
Species Cyphoderia aff. C. loevis Penard, 1902
The taxonomic scheme is from Lee et al. (1985).
Material: The amber piece is designated AF-9-18 in
the Poinar collection of Dominican amber, Depart-
ment of Entomology, University of California at
Berkeley. An actinomycete fossil from the same
piece of amber has been described by Waggoner
(1994). The source of the amber was the legume
Hymenaea, almost certainly H. protera (Poinar, 1991).
Description: The unilocular test is composed of
small (<1 |im), apparently round siliceous scales
arranged in a hexagonal pattern. Its aperture ap-
pears to be round and has no collar; the apertural
plane forms an 82° angle with the long axis; the
neck is very short and not well defined. No cyto-
plasm is visible, although there is a dark rim of
material that may be organic surrounding the aper-
ture. The test measures 38 ^im along the central axis
and 30 um across at its widest point; the aperture is
10 \im in diameter (fig. 1).
The small round scales, lack of ornamenta-
tion, bent aperture, and overall shape place this
fossil in the modern genus Cyphoderia De Saedeleer,
1934. The fossil is also similar to members of the
genus Centropyxis, but Centropyxis typically has a
pseudostome as well as agglutinated material on
the test, giving it a rougher appearance (Lee et al.,
1985). Most species of Cyphoderia are much larger
(100-150 |im) than this fossil (Chardez, 1991). How-
ever, the small size, relatively ovoid body and short,
broad neck, and material around the rim suggest
affinity with the living species C. loevis (Chardez,
1991). In shape the fossil is also close to C. truncata,
but C. truncata is said to be twice as large as the
fossil test (Lee et al., 1985); in any case, C. truncata is
considered Incertae Sedis in the most recent revi-
sion of the genus (Chardez, 1991). With so little
material, it is not advisable either to describe this
specimen as a new species or refer it definitively to
a modern species.
Locality and stratigraphy: The amber piece in
which the test was found is from mines in the north-
CARIBBEAN SEA
Figure 2. Map of amber-producing areas in northern
Dominican Republic (modified from Rice, 1980).
em part of the Dominican Republic. As is unfortu-
nately common when dealing with commercially
collected amber, its exact locality is unknown.
Northern Dominican amber, however, is generally
mined from the Altimira facies of the El Mamey
Formation (Upper Eocene). Dating by nuclear mag-
netic resonance spectroscopy has yielded dates of
25 to 40 Ma for amber from various Dominican
mines (Rice, 1980; Lambert et al., 1985). The fossil is
therefore presumably late Eocene-Oligocene in age
(fig- 2).
DISCUSSION
The test is associated with mineral particles
that resemble dust and occur along a single cleav-
age plane; thus, the test was probably transported
to the resin by wind, as were actinomycete-like
sporomorphs that are also preserved in the piece
(Waggoner, 1994). Modern species of C\/phoderia
range from moist mosses to aquatic vegetation; C.
loevi is aquatic (Chardez, 1991) and many species in
this genus, including C. truncata, live on mosses
(Lee et al., 1985). Assuming the test had not been
transported very far, the presence of Cyphoderia in-
dicates a very moist paleomicrohabitat within the
Dominican Eocene ecosystem, probably on mosses.
This is confirmed by finds of mosses in the genus
Hypnum (Poinar, 1992) and associated organisms
such as bdelloid rotifers (Poinar and Ricci, 1992;
Waggoner and Poinar, 1993) in Dominican amber.
Since most testate amoeba morphotypes, including
representatives of Cyphoderia, are nearly cosmopoli-
tan (Ogden and Hedley, 1980), no robust biogeo-
graphic conclusions are possible concerning the
presence of Cyphoderia in the Dominican Republic.
Almost all fossil testate amoebae known are
referable to extant genera and all are placed in mod-
ern families, although this may be due more to
Waggoner
First Fossil Cyphoderiid
Page 19
Figure 3. Outlines of fossil Cyphoderia and three extant
species of comparable size. A: Fossil Cyphoderia. B: C.
loevis. C: C. perlucidus. D: C. littoralis. (B, C, D after
Chardez, 1991).
insufficient study and the relative simplicity of the
tests than to real evolutionary stasis. Nevertheless,
testate amoebae do not appear to have changed
much since the Eocene, as far as the known bioge-
ography and sparse fossil record of the group can
show. Although this is the first report of Cyphoderia
in the fossil record, the related genera Euglypha and
Tracheleuglypha in the Euglyphina (Euglyphiidae)
are known from the middle Eocene and Miocene
respectively (Loeblich and Tappan, 1964). The pres-
ence of Cyphoderia in the Eocene-Oligocene thus
comes as no surprise.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank G. O. Poinar Jr. for supplying the ma-
terial and S. S. Bamforth for his assistance in identi-
fication. I also thank C. S. Hickman for the use of
her photographic equipment, and C. J. Bell and an
anonymous reviewer for constructive reviews of
this paper. This is contribution number 1652 of the
University of California Museum of Paleontology.
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