Paleobiology of Plant-Insect Interactions

Palaeobiology of plant-insect interactions investigates the fossil evidence of herbivory, pollination, galling and oviposition, charting the co-evolutionary history of two of Earth’s most diverse lineages. From the earliest vascular plants in the Silurian to the angiosperm expansions of the Cretaceous and beyond, insect feeding traces preserved on leaves, stems and reproductive organs reveal the emergence and diversification of herbivore functional feeding groups. Methodological advances—such as the integration of damage-type classification with network metrics and remote sensing technologies—have illuminated local to global patterns of herbivory, including responses to mass-extinction events, climatic shifts and biogeographic gradients. Studies now link fossil assemblages with modern analogues to calibrate palaeoecological models, offering fresh insights into the resilience and vulnerability of terrestrial ecosystems under environmental change.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have applied palaeobotanical protocols to living forests, generating direct analogues for fossil data and quantifying spatial variability in insect damage. By sampling three distinct modern forest types and employing non-metric multidimensional scaling alongside bipartite network analyses, researchers demonstrated that overall herbivory frequency remains consistent, while the composition of functional feeding groups varies with plant diversity, latitude and habitat. Crucially, this approach detected a caterpillar outbreak within a temperate forest, confirming that signals of insect population surges persist across temporal scales. This work validates key assumptions about fossil herbivore communities and proposes an integrated framework for identifying ancient and modern feeding outbreaks.

Paleobiology of Plant-Insect Interactions publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in paleobiology of plant-insect interactions across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Functional feeding group (FFG): A category of herbivore based on feeding mode, such as hole feeding or mining.

Damage type (DT): A classification of plant injury morphology used to infer feeding behaviour in fossil and modern assemblages.

Bipartite network: A two-mode network linking plants and insect damage types to quantify interaction structure.

Endophytic: Referring to feeding or oviposition occurring within plant tissues.

Galling: The formation of plant tissue swellings induced by insect larvae or mites.

Oviposition: The process of insect egg-laying, often leaving identifiable scars in plant tissue.

References

1. Arthropod and Pathogen Damage on Fossil and Modern Plants: Exploring the Origins and Evolution of Herbivory on Land. Annual Review of Entomology (2023).
2. Damselflies (Coenagrionidae) have been avoiding leaf veins during oviposition for at least 52 million years. iScience (2023).
3. Plant–Insect Interactions on Aquatic and Terrestrial Angiosperms from the Latest Albian (Early Cretaceous) of Estercuel (Northeastern Spain) and Their Paleoenvironmental Implications. Plants (2023).
4. Landscape-level variability and insect herbivore outbreak captured within modern forests provides a framework for interpreting the fossil record. Scientific Reports (2023).