New records of leaf galls and arthropod oviposition scars in Permian - Triassic Gondwanan gymnosperms

Abstract

Abstract. Single, midrib-positioned galls and midrib-flanking oviposition scars are described from four species of Permian glossopterid foliage from Australia and South Africa. Several of these traces have been mistaken previously for glossopterid reproductive organs or fructification detachment scars. A single Early Triassic corystosperm leaf from Australia is reported bearing multiple disc-like galls on both the midrib and pinnules. A Middle Triassic taeniopterid gymnosperm leaf from Australia is described hosting oviposition scars between consecutive secondary veins flanking the midrib. These fossils attest to a much richer record of plant-arthropod interactions in the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic of high-latitude Gondwana than previously reported, and indicate that herbivory and reproductive strategies involving galling and foliar ovipositioning were re-established relatively soon after the end-Permian mass extinction event that saw major turnovers in both the flora and insect fauna.

Biota and palaeoenvironment of a high middle-latitude Late Triassic peat-forming ecosystem from Hopen, Svalbard archipelago

“…These organisms interact in a complex network of relationships that has experienced massive expansion since the initial steps in colonization of the land. However, the fossil record of these interrelationships remains sparsely documented and much of our knowledge of interactions in terrestrial communities derives from a small number of isolated fossils or exceptional Lagerstätten (Ash 1996(Ash , 2000Scott et al 2004;McLoughlin 2011;Moisan et al 2012;Strullu-Derrien et al 2012;Labandeira 2013;Ghosh et al 2015).…”

Insect herbivory from early Permian Mitchell Creek Flats of north-central Texas: Opportunism in a balanced component community

“…Ovipositional damage is first recognized during the middle Pennsylvanian, as large, lenticular lesions in calamite and other sphenopsid stems (Béthoux, 2004) and during the late Pennsylvanian as lenticular lesions on an unidentified leaf (Laaß and Hoff, 2014). The predominance of oviposition on plant axes continues throughout the Permian (Labandeira, 2006a(Labandeira, , 2006b), but largely becomes supplemented by foliar oviposition, particularly on Gondwanan, glossopterid-based floras (Prevec et al, 2009;McLoughlin, 2011;Pinheiro et al, 2012;Labandeira and Currano, 2013;Labandeira and Prevec, 2014;Gallego et al, 2014).…”

“…Euramerican foliar galls of the earlier Permian included ten morphotypes on medullosan pteridosperms, walchian coniferophytes, callipterid peltasperms, gigantopterids, and probable cycadophytes (Florin, 1945;Labandeira and Allen, 2007;Vasilenko, 2007;Stull et al, 2013;Schachat et al, 2014;Schachat and Labandeira, 2015). In Gondwana, galls are less diverse, occur in deposits from the later Permian, and include approximately five different morphotypes on all anatomical parts of glossopterid leaves (Pant and Srivastava, 1995;Prevec et al, 2009;McLoughlin, 2011 …”

The record of Australian Jurassic plant–arthropod interactions

“…Triassic plant-insect interactions have not yet been fully surveyed from Australia, although individual cases of arthropod damage have been identified (Rozefelds and Sobbe, 1987;McLoughlin, 2011). Although numerous genera of gymnosperms are unique to either the Late Triassic or Jurassic assemblages of southern Gondwana, many families span this interval.…”