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The world as we know it today is almost inconceivable without the rich and colourful landscapes created by plant life. Among them are flowering plants, or angiosperms, which are by far the most diverse and abundant group of plants, making up over 80% of all known species, including all our staple food crops.
But the world was not always like this. There was a time when plant life was almost exclusively green. Then, in the time of the dinosaurs, the world burst magnificently into bloom.
Flowers blessed our environment with chromatic vibrancy, but they also upturned food chains and elbowed out their nonflowering predecessors. Little is known about how ecosystems reacted to this sudden blossoming. But now, a tiny beetle, preserved in amber for 99 million years, has provided a valuable clue about how insects first began nourishing themselves on a colourful new platter of plants.
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Fossilised beetle poo sheds light on prehistoric pollinator diets
Ecological reconstruction of a prehistoric beetle pollinating flowers. Image: Jie Sun
Researchers have used a beetle fossilised in amber to learn more about prehistoric pollinator-flower systems.
A new study claims that some ancient pollinators didn’t just transport pollen, but fed on it too. Researchers at the University of Bristol and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have unearthed new findings using a prehistoric pollinator fossil.
Pollinators are some of the most important organisms on Earth. They carry pollen from one flowering plant to another, servicing more than 180,000 plant species and more than 1,200 crops.
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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.
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