Plant-Arthropod Associations from the Lower Miocene of the Most Basin in Northern Bohemia (Czech Republic): A Preliminary Report
Abstract
The results of feeding damage were obtained based on a dataset of nearly 3500 plant specimens from the Lower Miocene of Bilina. These fossils are preserved in three characteristic horizons (CSH, DSH, LCH), reflecting paleoenvironmental changes in a short time period of development.
The trace fossils are classified as functional feeding groups or "guilds", without searching for a direct causer or a recent analog host relation. Approximately 23% of specimens of dicotyledonous plant leaves were found to be damaged and associated with some leaf "morphotypes".
Deciduous plant-host taxa, and those with a chartaceous texture typical of riparian habitats were frequently damaged, such as Populus, Acer, Alnus, and Carya. There is evidence of 60 damage types (DT) representing all FFG recorded including 12 types of leaf mines and 16 gall-type DT.
In total, it exhibits a high level of external foliage feeding types (23.7%), and a low level of more specialized DT, such as galls (4.3%) and leaf mines (< 1%).