Eocene amber fossils reveal how complex trophic interactions shaped tropical rainforest biodiversity.

ABSTRACT: The Eocene Epoch represented a pinnacle in Indian paleobiodiversity, explained by the ESAT (energy-stability-area-time) theory, which links climatic stability and geological time in fostering immense biodiversity. We provide a reconstruction of a middle Eocene tropical ecosystem from an amber biota recovered from the Harudi Formation (∼41.6 ± 0.5 to ∼40.8 ± 0.5 Ma), Umarsar Lignite Mine (ULM), western India. It reveals a highly diverse ecosystem (>800 arthropods of various taxonomic ranks along with 78 genera and 118 species of palynomorphs) thriving in warm and humid conditions (mean temperature ∼25°C; rainfall ∼2,450 mm/year), analogous to modern tropical climates. The findings show that favorable climate, ecological complexity, and India's northward drift facilitated tropical lineage di

SUBMITTER: Agnihotri P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12496201 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature