Amber fossils have an amazing ability to preserve living things. Courtesy of Bo Wang
99 million years ago, the world looked very different from what it does now. That was the middle of the Cretaceous Period. Dinosaurs roamed the earth in swarms. Ancient carnivorous birds are trying to fly. The forest is dense and green, full of dwarf cycads and fan-leaf ginkgo biloba. And this is also the first time in the history of the earth that flowers have bloomed.
At some point, a small beetle happened to visit one of the flowers. The unfortunate insect was then covered with tiny spots of prehistoric pollen and landed on the wrong tree, trapped by dripping resin. In the following millennium, the resin hardened into amber. According to a study published Monday in the journal PNAS, pollen-covered beetles helped fill a significant gap in the fossil record, bringing the history of insect pollination nearly 50 million years earlier.
"[Fossils] confirm our hypothesis, or provide evidence that we think is necessary," said David Dilcher, a paleontologist and professor emeritus at Indiana University. Prior to this discovery, there was no fossil evidence of an early link between plants and insects.
Dilcher has been searching for "the world's first flower" for the past fifty years. To be less poetically expressed, Dilcher dedicated himself to decoding the origin and evolution of flowering plants – in this narrative, insects are essential participants.
In 1998, Dilcher helped describe one of the earliest known flowers, Archeafuctus, which comes from the early Cretaceous period with slender stems and no petals. Other flowers that continued to flourish in the mid-Cretaceous period look similar to magnolias, buttercus, and laurel (but not like them either). These simple flowers soon saw an explosion of diversity.
Even if Dilcher discovers these fossil flowers, he knows there are many more stories —he can't paint this larger picture with the flowers alone. "We said, 'Well, there have to be these flowers to attract animals,' he said. "But we've never shown that animals are actually attracted to these flowers and come into contact with them."
A few years ago, Dilcher attended an "amber conference" where paleontologist and future collaborator Bo Wang met with him. The king showed him a piece of amber containing pollen-covered insects, and Dilcher knew it was the evidence he needed. This trapped little beetle has a curved wedge-shaped body, a sunken head and sturdy hind legs. It is not accidentally covered with pollen - this is its main structure.
This relationship began to develop together for millions of years. The flowers quickly evolved into showing beautiful colors, as if to say, "I'm here, am I not pretty?" "They develop nice perfumes and sweet nectar for the same purpose. Insects can't help but notice this seductive display of sweetness, which provides food as well as a comfortable mating or resting place. In the process, they also spread rapidly and carry pollen, allowing the flowers to quickly disperse and diversify their genetic material.
From carnations to cadaver flowers, the sheer number of flowers that exist today proves that the strategy was successful. In almost all climates around the world, more than 300,000 known species of flowers and plants dominate the world.
"You might say, 'Who's smarter, plant or animal?' Dilcher asked. "Well, I think these plants won."
Author/Jess Romeo
Translator/Lancelot
Original/www.popsci.com/story/animals/beetle-in-amber/
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