Dinosaurs died out, but what about Insects?
Thursday, 29. October 2009, 10:11:16
The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, was a large-scale mass extinction of animal and plant species in a geologically short period of time. The most famous victims were the dinosaurs. More than half of the species that lived in the sea died out at this time - including ammonites and rudists.
What happened to the insects?
Gunnar Ries at Amphibol commented in a post of 28 October 2009 some of the different causes used to explain the extinction event. His post is in German. This post drew my attention (thank you!) to a publication by a team of biologists form Bonn in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
Previous studies of insect-damaged fossil leaves in the US Western Interior showed major plant and insect herbivore (plant feeding) extinction at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary. The Bonn team studied leaf fossils from the middle Palaeocene Menat site, France, which has the oldest well-preserved leaf assemblage from the Palaeocene of Europe, to test the generality of the observed Palaeocene US pattern. Apparently the insects were harder hit in the US than in Europe, and where it took about 10 million years for the insect fauna in the US to recover, Europe did in half that time, namely only 5 million years.
The diversity and complexity of plant–insect interactions at Menat suggest that the net effects of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction were less at this greater distance from the Chicxulub, Mexico, impact site. Along with the available data from other regions, the study seems to show that the end-of-Cretaceous event did not cause a uniform, long-lasting depression of global terrestrial ecosystems. Rather, it gave rise to varying regional patterns of ecological collapse and recovery that appear to have been strongly influenced by distance from the Chicxulub structure.
This does not end the discussion, but seems to back up the Chicxulub hypothesis. Who makes the next goal?
Reference:
Wappler et al.
No post-Cretaceous ecosystem depression in European forests? Rich insect-feeding damage on diverse middle Palaeocene plants, Menat, France
Published online before print September 23, 2009
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1255
Unfortunately NOT open access !
The Palaeocene Epoch is a geologic epoch that lasted from around 65 to around 56 million years ago.
The Palaeogene Period (that began around 65 and ended around 23 million years ago) on the other hand comprises the Palaeocene, Eocene and Oligocene
What happened to the insects?
Gunnar Ries at Amphibol commented in a post of 28 October 2009 some of the different causes used to explain the extinction event. His post is in German. This post drew my attention (thank you!) to a publication by a team of biologists form Bonn in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
Previous studies of insect-damaged fossil leaves in the US Western Interior showed major plant and insect herbivore (plant feeding) extinction at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary. The Bonn team studied leaf fossils from the middle Palaeocene Menat site, France, which has the oldest well-preserved leaf assemblage from the Palaeocene of Europe, to test the generality of the observed Palaeocene US pattern. Apparently the insects were harder hit in the US than in Europe, and where it took about 10 million years for the insect fauna in the US to recover, Europe did in half that time, namely only 5 million years.
The diversity and complexity of plant–insect interactions at Menat suggest that the net effects of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction were less at this greater distance from the Chicxulub, Mexico, impact site. Along with the available data from other regions, the study seems to show that the end-of-Cretaceous event did not cause a uniform, long-lasting depression of global terrestrial ecosystems. Rather, it gave rise to varying regional patterns of ecological collapse and recovery that appear to have been strongly influenced by distance from the Chicxulub structure.
This does not end the discussion, but seems to back up the Chicxulub hypothesis. Who makes the next goal?
Reference:
Wappler et al.
No post-Cretaceous ecosystem depression in European forests? Rich insect-feeding damage on diverse middle Palaeocene plants, Menat, France
Published online before print September 23, 2009
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1255
Unfortunately NOT open access !
The Palaeocene Epoch is a geologic epoch that lasted from around 65 to around 56 million years ago.
The Palaeogene Period (that began around 65 and ended around 23 million years ago) on the other hand comprises the Palaeocene, Eocene and Oligocene
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