Angiosperm pollinivory in a Cretaceous beetle
| Autor: | Yitong Su, Chenyang Cai, Yanzhe Fu, Liqin Li, Diying Huang, Erik Tihelka |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Pollination biology Plant Science medicine.disease_cause biology.organism_classification 01 natural sciences Cretaceous 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology Asteridae Pollinator Pollen Botany medicine Mesozoic Rosidae Cucujoidea 010606 plant biology & botany |
| Zdroj: | Nature Plants. 7:445-451 |
| ISSN: | 2055-0278 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41477-021-00893-2 |
| Popis: | Despite the crucial importance of flower-visiting insects in modern ecosystems, there is little fossil evidence on the origins of angiosperm pollination. Most reports of pollination in the Mesozoic fossil record have been based on the co-occurrence of the purported pollinators with pollen grains and assumed morphological adaptations for vectoring pollen. Here, we describe an exceptionally preserved short-winged flower beetle (Cucujoidea: Kateretidae) from mid-Cretaceous amber, Pelretes vivificus gen. et sp. nov., associated with pollen aggregations and coprolites consisting mainly of pollen, providing direct evidence of pollen-feeding in a Cretaceous beetle and confirming that diverse beetle lineages visited early angiosperms in the Cretaceous. The exquisite preservation of our fossil permits the identification of the pollen grains as Tricolpopollenites (Asteridae or Rosidae), representing a record of flower beetle pollination of a group of derived angiosperms in the Mesozoic and suggesting that potentially diverse beetle lineages visited early angiosperms by the mid-Cretaceous. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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