Plants and insects are the most diverse groups among macroscopic organisms on land today; their interactions play a pivotal role in the comprehension of the structure and the function of terrestrial ecosystems. The Paleozoic Era is a critical time-interval during the evolutionary history of both plants and insects. However, because of the lack of systematic investigations of the fossil records, the relationships between plants and insects and their co-evolution are still shrouded in mystery to date. Based on the systematic study of beetle's borings preserved in the late Permian (some 253 million-years ago) fossil conifer wood, this paper presents the earliest-known evidence for wood-boring beetles with changed diets during their developments by utilizing fungi, and living in a complicated ecological network. Statistical analysis indicates that the wood-boring beetles are probably the cause of a significant insect plague onto conifers during the late Permian. This study shows that the permineralized plant fossils are precious materials for a better understanding of the deeptime terrestrial ecosystems.

Paleozoic  /  plant-insect interaction  /  deep time terrestrial ecosystem