Patterns of floral turnover and plant-insect interactions through the Guadalupian-Lopingian (middle-late Permian) biotic crisis

Insects and other arthropods are the dominant terrestrial herbivores and are crucial for the pollination of crops and the health of natural ecosystems but they are currently experiencing severe declines globally.

Despite their importance, we have remarkably poor insights into how insects responded in conjunction with plants to the major biotic crises of Earth’s past.

The fossil records of ancient crises associated with sharp global warming arguably provide templates for deducing how land plants and arthropods will respond to current climate change and environmental degradation.

This project will resolve the patterns of extinction and recovery of plant groups and their arthropod herbivores across the middle-late Permian (Guadalupian-Lopingian: 259.5 Myr) boundary—defining one of the most overlooked biotic crises in Earth’s history.

Analyses of diagnostic feeding and egg-laying traces on plant fossils will chart the patterns of plant utilization by terrestrial arthropods through this extinction event using new standardized sampling approaches and a range of statistical techniques.

The study will employ novel neutron- and X-ray tomography, SEM and transmitted and fluorescence microscopy to investigate globally unique Permian fossil assemblages from polar to equatorial palaeolatitudes (Antarctica, Australia, China).

The results will elucidate the evolution of herbivory, parasitism, saprotrophy, detritivory and plant defences across one of Earth’s greatest biotic crisis.