Fossil leaves reveal drivers of herbivore functional diversity during the Cenozoic.

ABSTRACT: Herbivorous arthropods are the most diverse group of multicellular organisms on Earth. The most discussed drivers of their inordinate taxonomic and functional diversity are high niche availability associated with the diversity of host plants and dense niche packing due to host partitioning among herbivores. However, the relative contributions of these two factors to dynamics in the diversity of herbivores throughout Earth's history remain unresolved. Using fossil data on herbivore-induced leaf damage from across the Cenozoic, we infer quantitative bipartite interaction networks between plants and functional feeding types of herbivores. We fit a general model of diversity to these interaction networks and discover that host partitioning among functional groups of herbivores contributed twic

SUBMITTER: Albrecht J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10410718 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature