Bluesky

Feeding traces on fossil leaves help researchers identify factors leading to enormous herbivore diversity

Researchers from the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt and the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center Frankfurt have uncovered the factors that determine the enormous diversity of herbivorous insects.

A new field of research: Crystal traces in fossil leaves

In fossil leaves, puzzling structures are often visible under the microscope. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show for the first time that they originate from calcium oxalate crystals. On the one hand, their discovery facilitates the identification of the ancient plant remains. But it also provides answers as to how the ability to form such crystals arose and what function they presumably perform. The results have now been published in the journal Scientific Reports.