Generalist Pollen-Feeding Beetles during the Mid-Cretaceous
David Peris,
Conrad C. Labandeira,
Eduardo Barrón,
Xavier Delclòs,
Jes Rust,
Bo Wang
Affiliations
David Peris
Institute of Geosciences, University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany; Corresponding author
Conrad C. Labandeira
Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA; Department of Entomology and Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, 100048 Beijing, China
Eduardo Barrón
Museo Geominero, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, 28003 Madrid, Spain
Xavier Delclòs
Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà and Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Jes Rust
Institute of Geosciences, University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany
Bo Wang
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, 210008 Nanjing, China; Corresponding author
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
