Fossil Club Public Lecture by Sarah Augusta MacCraken
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Calvert Marine Museum 14200 Solomons Island Road, Solomons, Maryland 20688
![83104309_2680004365448144_4393796215762845696_o.jpg 83104309_2680004365448144_4393796215762845696_o.jpg](https://whatsupmag.com/downloads/42823/download/83104309_2680004365448144_4393796215762845696_o.jpg?cb=1ad495242acf7c74634ec6bedaba4d47&w={width}&h={height})
Sarah Augusta MacCraken
Sarah Augusta MacCraken
THE INCONSPICUOUS LIVES OF ANCIENT INSECTS: FOSSIL EVIDENCE OF INSECT HERBIVORY ON PLANTS
The evolutionary history of plants and their insect adversaries is a story told by the scars on fossil leaves. Insect damage on a single leaf not only captures one moment in time when an insect fed upon a plant, but it also reflects the millions of years of evolution leading up to that moment. These minute and unassuming fossil traces also tell us a great deal about how terrestrial ecosystems functioned during periods of biotic turnover, climate change, and extinction events. For this talk, I will discuss my research on Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene plant-insect associations, including a newly discovered lyonetiid moth mite, the oldest evidence for plant-mite associations, insect herbivory during the rise and radiation of flowering plants, and a new project examining insect herbivory throughout the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction.