Fossils show gum trees that have been tracked for millions of years

The injury of the fossil eucalyptus insect mines from the Lagunadel Hanko on the left matches the center and the mining mining of modern eucalyptus samples in Australia on the right. Credit: L. Alejandro Giraldo
How long do insects eat leaves eat their favorite food? According to Pennsylvania researchers, perhaps the opposite of the world has found insects on fossil leaves in South America, almost the same as what they see today in the living parent, a living parent, in Australian trees.
The recent survey results in Journal New Phytologist suggest that they are breeding gum, a pottery of Australian eucalyptus, in the Southern Hemisphere, at least 52 million years and Southern Hemisphere.
“The big surprising result is that all kinds of insects in the fossils survive today,” said L. Alejandro Girard, a student in the Global Science Department in Pennsylvania. “It suggests that insects that had eaten eucalyptus plants in the past took the time to track the food of the plant.”
The relationship between fossil plants and insects can provide important information about how geological ecosystems evolve during geological periods, but fossils that directly link the relationship to the present age. Researchers said that the evidence was rare.
“There is an advanced weapon competition between plants and insects,” said Giraud. “Plants evolve new defense, and insects find a way to avoid them to continue feeding. This cycle is over time. This work is evolved between herbivorous insects and their plant foods. The relationships that you see in the fossils you can see now may be quite consistent that the relationship may be stable over time. “
Previous studies found that Pennsylvanian scientists and their international colleagues had existed million years ago in modern Patagonia in Argentina, like Southeast Asia, like Australia and Southeast Asia. 。 The plants may have spread when the planet was much more warm, and when Australia, Antarctica, and South America were connected in front of the ultimate division of the Gondwana super continent.
New research suggests that insects may follow the food source.


In the leaves of this fossil gum, you can see insect mines. The mine is a tunnel left in the larvae of the insect when swinging around the ingredients of the plant. Credit: L. Alejandro Giraldo
“We have been working on them for a long time, so we were able to convey this very interesting story of eukari -like plants that survive in time and space, but we ate those plants. We are us about very diverse insects, “said Girad.
Giraud has studied 284 fossil eucalyptus insects from Ragnadel Hanko fossil fossils 52 million years ago, and more than 10,000 modern eucalyptus from Australia and Southeast Asia, which is held in Australia and US collections I compared the damage pattern with the sample.
The ancient eucalyptus plants looked like a popular food source. Researchers have identified several types of insect damage, including external feeding, gall bladder, and mines. The gall bladder is a tumor -like growth that occurs when insects lay eggs or eggs on leaves, and the mining is a tunnel left in the larva of the insect when swinging around the plant ingredients.
“It’s like today. If you go to the park and pick up a bunch of leaves, you will probably see the chewing mark, bile, and mines,” said Girard. “We can see the traces of eating these same insects in fossils. By doing so, you can get a glimpse of ancient forest ecology.”
The culprit of a specific insect that causes damage found in fossils is not preserved as fossils and remains unknown. According to Giraldo, 15,000 to 20,000 insects feed on eucalyptus today, but most are never explained.
According to the team, this task identifies a new insect type to provide damage to the relevant insects that match the list of modern eucalyptus, the positions of these groups, and the coordinated insects. You may provide opportunities.
“I believe that some of these insect systems followed through time and space, but there are restrictions on what can be seen through fossils, and the culprit cannot be assigned straight.” He says.
“We have the place of modern plants we have studied, so if you are interested in explaining new insects, go to this site and find this plant. You can find a new insect species by tracking the same eating trace.
Peter Wilf, a professor of Globan science in Pennsylvania, and Girard’s adviser, also contributed to the study. Michael Donovan and Michael Donovan of the Field Museum Natural History have contributed. Robert Koiman, an honorary member of Macquerley, Australia. Maria Gandolfo, Professor of Cornel University.
Details: L. Alejandro Giraldo et al, fossil insect consumption traces show an unaware of evolutionary evolution and biological diversity, a new botanist (2024). DOI: 10.1111/nph.20316
Provided by Pennsylvania State University
Quoted: The fossils show gum trees (2025, February 4), which tracked the insects that eat leaves for millions of years, and February 4, 2025 https://phys.org/news/2025 Collected from -02-fossils-leaf-enCECTS-tracked-gum. Html
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