Last supper for prehistoric pollinating beetle
Fossil poo filled with pollen shows beetles visited flowers.
Identifying who pollinated flowers in prehistoric times might be as simple as looking at fossilised beetle poo.
A team of researchers, led by Erik Tihelka of the University of Bristol, UK, unearthed an amber fossil of a Cretaceous beetle,
Pelretes vivificus, whose fossilised faeces was packed with pollen, suggesting that the beetle was a useful pollinator of flowering plants 98 million years ago.
Key research points
The beetle may have been an important pollinator
Pollen diet shows coevolution with flowering plants
“The fossil faecal pellets are completely composed of pollen, the same type that is found in clusters surrounding the beetle and attached to its body,” says Tihelka, “We thus know that Pelretes visited angiosperms to feed on their pollen.