Understanding the ecology of host plant–insect herbivore interactions in the fossil record through bipartite networks

Abstract

Plant–insect associations have been a significant component of terrestrial ecology for more than 400 Myr. Exploring these interactions in the fossil record through novel perspectives provides a window into understanding evolutionary and ecological forces that shaped these interactions. For the past several decades, researchers have documented, described, and categorized fossil evidence of these interactions. Drawing on powerful tools from network science, we propose here a bipartite network representation of fossilized plants and their herbivore-induced leaf damage to understand late Paleozoic plant–insect interactions at the local community level. We focus on four assemblages from north-central Texas, but the methods used in this work are general and can be applied to any well-preserved fossil flora. Network analysis can address key questions in the evolution of insect herbivory that often would be difficult to summarize using standard herbivory metrics.

Understanding the ecology of host plant–insect herbivore interactions in the fossil record through bipartite networks—Corrigendum

“…We currently are working on a new, more finely resolved, and available metric, other than DT and surface area, for establishing standardization in fossil bipartite networks.

Figure 1.Sample-based rarefaction of each flora by damage type (DT) richness, including 84% confidence intervals, corrected from Swain et al (2021).

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“…Sample-based rarefaction of each flora by damage type (DT) richness, including 84% confidence intervals, corrected from Swain et al (2021). …”

“…It has been brought to our attention that there were several features of our 2021 paper in Paleobiology (Swain et al 2021) in which certain procedures were omitted, data and results required further discussion, or one or more of our analyses could have benefited from an alternative approach. We are taking this opportunity to address, correct, and update the record, detailed below in the following points.…”

“…The second issue is the lack of inclusion of Supaia thinnfeldioides (a peltasperm) in the CCP dataset, which was not included individually in figure 2B or collectively within the peltasperm assemblage of figure 3B of Swain et al (2021). The exclusion of S. thinnfeldioides was attributable to its rare status overall in the CCP flora.…”

“…Those network properties that were meaningful for host plant-DT networks were robust to sample size and noise. Many of the network properties were not significant with respect to sample size and consequently were not listed in table 1 of Swain et al (2021).…”