Bioluminescent beetles of the superfamily Elateroidea (fireflies, fire beetles, glow-worms) are the most speciose group of terrestrial light-producing animals. The evolution of bioluminescence in elateroids is associated with unusual morphological modifications, such as soft-bodiedness and neoteny, but the fragmentary nature of the fossil record discloses little about the origin of these adaptations. We report the discovery of a new bioluminescent elateroid beetle family from the mid-Cretaceous of northern Myanmar (ca 99 Ma), Cretophengodidae fam. nov. Cretophengodes azari gen. et sp. nov. belongs to the bioluminescent lampyroid clade, and would appear to represent a transitional fossil linking the soft-bodied Phengodidae + Rhagophthalmidae clade and hard-bodied elateroids. The fossil male possesses a light organ on the abdomen which presumably served a defensive function, documenting a Cretaceous radiation of bioluminescent beetles coinciding with the diversification of major insectivore groups such as frogs and stem-group birds. The discovery adds a key branch to the elateroid tree of life and sheds light on the evolution of soft-bodiedness and the historical biogeography of elateroid beetles.

Australian National Insect Collection CSIRO National Research Collections Australia GPO Box 1700 Canberra Australian Capital Territory 2601 Australia

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Palacký University 77900 Olomouc Czech Republic

School of Earth Sciences University of Bristol Life Sciences Building Tyndall Avenue Bristol BS8 1TQ UK

School of Life Sciences Peking University Beijing 100871 People's Republic of China

State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol School of Life Sciences Sun Yat Sen University Guangzhou 510275 People's Republic of China

State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Centre for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing 210008 People's Republic of China

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Click beetle larvae from Cretaceous Burmese amber represent an ancient Gondwanan lineage

A light in the dark: a mid-Cretaceous bioluminescent firefly with specialized antennal sensory organs

Rhagophthalmidae Olivier, 1907 (Coleoptera, Elateroidea): described genera and species, current problems, and prospects for the bioluminescent and paedomorphic beetle lineage

Beetle bioluminescence outshines extant aerial predators

Dominican amber net-winged beetles suggest stable paleoenvironment as a driver for conserved morphology in a paedomorphic lineage

Integrated phylogenomics and fossil data illuminate the evolution of beetles

An unusual elateroid lineage from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Coleoptera: Elateroidea)

Anchored Phylogenomics, Evolution and Systematics of Elateridae: Are All Bioluminescent Elateroidea Derived Click Beetles?

The Fossil Record of Elateridae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea): Described Species, Current Problems and Future Prospects

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