Generalist Pollen-Feeding Beetles during the Mid-Cretaceous

oleh: David Peris, Conrad C. Labandeira, Eduardo Barrón, Xavier Delclòs, Jes Rust, Bo Wang

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2020-03-01

Deskripsi

Summary: The Cretaceous fossil record of amber provides a variety of evidence that is essential for greater understanding of early pollination strategies. Here, we describe four pieces of ca. 99-million-year-old (early Cenomanian) Myanmar amber from Kachin containing four closely related genera of short-winged flower beetles (Coleoptera: Kateretidae) associated with abundant pollen grains identified as three distinct palynomorphotypes of the gymnosperm Cycadopites and Praenymphaeapollenites cenomaniensis gen. and sp. nov., a form-taxon of pollen from a basal angiosperm lineage of water lilies (Nymphaeales: Nymphaeaceae). We demonstrate how a gymnosperm to angiosperm plant-host shift occurred during the mid-Cretaceous, from a generalist pollen-feeding family of beetles, which served as a driving mechanism for the subsequent success of flowering plants. : Biological Sciences; Evolutionary Biology; Evolutionary Ecology; Paleobiology Subject Areas: Biological Sciences, Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Ecology, Paleobiology