▪ Abstract Although research on modern plant-arthropod associations is one of the cornerstones of biodiversity studies, very little of that interest has percolated down to the fossil record. Much of this neglect is attributable to dismissal of Paleozoic plant-arthropod interactions as being dominated by detritivory, with substantive herbivory not emerging until the Mesozoic. Recent examination of associations from some of the earliest terrestrial communities indicates that herbivory probably extends to the Early Devonian, in the form of spore feeding and piercing-and-sucking. External feeding on pinnule margins and the intimate and intricate association of galling are documented from the Middle and Late Pennsylvanian, respectively. During the Early Permian, the range of external foliage feeding extended to hole feeding and skeletonization and was characterized by the preferential targeting of certain seed plants. At the close of the Paleozoic, surface fluid feeding was established, but there is inconclusi...

Early history of arthropod and vascular plant associations

PREFACE: James O. Farlow and M. K. Brett-Surman PART ONE: THE DISCOVERY OF DINOSAURS The Earliest Discoveries: William A. S. Sarjeant European Dinosaur Hunters: Hans-Dieter Sues North American Dinosaur Hunters: Edwin H. Colbert Asian Dinosaur Hunters: John R. Lavas Dinosaur Hunters of the Southern Continents: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. PART TWO: THE STUDY OF DINOSAURS Hunting for Dinosaur Bones: David D. Gillette The Osteology of the Dinosaurs: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. and M. K.Brett-Surman The Taxonomy and Systematics of the Dinosaurs: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. and M. K. Brett-Surman Dinosaurs and Geologic Time: James O. Farlow The Scientific Study of Dinosaurs: Ralph E. Chapman Molecular Paleontology: Rationale and Techniques for the Study of Ancient Biomolecules: Mary Higby Schweitzer Dinosaurs as Museum Exhibits: Kenneth Carpenter Restoring Dinosaurs as Living Animals: Douglas Henderson PART THREE: THE GROUPS OF DINOSAURS Introduction: James O. Farlow and M. K. Brett-Surman Politics and Paleontology: Richard Owen and the Invention of Dinosaurs: Hugh Torrens Evolution of the Archosaurs: J. Michael Parrish Origin and Early Evolution of Dinosaurs: Michael J. Benton Theropods: Philip J. Currie Segnosaurs (Therezinosaurs): Teresa Maryanska Prosauropods: Jacques VanHeerden Sauropods: John S. McIntosh, M. K. Brett-Surman, and James O. Farlow Stegosaurs: Peter M. Galton Ankylosaurs: Kenneth Carpenter Marginocephalians: Catherine A. Forster and Paul C. Sereno Ornithopods: M. K. Brett-Surman PART FOUR: BIOLOGY OF THE DINOSAURS Land Plants as Food and Habitat in the Age of Dinosaurs: Bruce H. Tiffney What Did Dinosaurs Eat? Coprolites and Other Direct Evidence of Dinosaur Diets: Karen Chin Dinosaur Combat and Courtship: Scott Sampson Dinosaur Eggs: Karl F. Hirsch and Darla K. Zelenitsky How Dinosaurs Grew: R. E. H. Reid Engineering a Dinosaur: R. McN. Alexander Dinosaurian Paleopathology: Bruce M. Rothschild Dinosaurian Physiology: the Case for "Intermediate" Dinosaurs: R. E. H. Reid Oxygen Isotopes in Dinosaur Bone: Reese E. Barrick, Michael K. Stoskopf, and William J. Showers A Blueprint for Giants: Do Living Reptiles, Birds or Mammals Provide the Best Model for the Physiology of Large Dinosaurs? Frank V. Paladino, James R. Spotila, and Peter Dodson New Insights into the Metabolic Physiology of Dinosaurs: John Ruben, Andrew Leitch, Willem Hillenius, Nicholas Geist, and Terry Jones The Scientific Study of Dinosaur Footprints: James O. Farlow and Ralph E. Chapman The Paleoecological and Paleoenvironmental Utility of Dinosaur Tracks: Martin G. Lockley PART FIVE: DINOSAUR EVOLUTION IN THE CHANGING WORLD OF THE MESOZOIC ERA Biogeography for Dinosaurs: Ralph E. Molnar Major Groups of Non-Dinosaurian Vertebrates of the Mesozoic Era: Michael Morales Continental Tetrapods of the Early Mesozoic: Faunas and Faunal Changes: Hans-Dieter Sues Dinosaurian Faunas of the Later Mesozoic: Dale A. Russell and Jose F. Bonaparte The Extinction of the Dinosaurs: A Dialogue Between a Catastrophist and a Gradualist: Dale A. Russell and Peter Dodson PART SIX: DINOSAURS AND THE MEDIA Dinosaurs and the Media: Donald F. Glut and M. K. Brett-Surman APPENDIX: A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF DINOSAUR PALEONTOLOGY: M. K. Brett-Surman GLOSSARY CONTRIBUTORS INDEX

The Complete Dinosaur

Portrait of a Gondwanan ecosystem: A new late Permian fossil locality from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

A global synthesis of gymnosperm families, fossil and extant, provides a new and distinctive perspective on the macroevolutionary biodiversity trends within this group through their 375 million-year history. The total diversity recognised here amounts to 84 families in 37 orders and 10 classes, of which 13 families in 4 orders and 4 classes are extant and 71 families in 37 orders and 10 classes are extinct. The 71 extinct families are based on reference wholeplant genera with the focus on ovulate fruit, an approach dictated by the highly varying availability and grade of data on affiliated organs. The stratigraphic ranges of the 84 gymnosperm families are plotted according to their first and last appearances—at the resolution of the geological stage—in the fossil record. The biodiversity histogram based on these data clearly reveals four broad phases in the history of the gymnosperms: three periods of radiation and extinction from the latest Devonian to latest Cretaceous, followed by an interval of stasis through the Tertiary to present. The ‘Secondary Radiation’ through the Triassic, following the end-Permian extinction, is clearly the most explosive and leads to the putative diversity heyday of the gymnosperms in the Carnian—with 30 families (23 orders, 10 classes). A series of 30 full-page colour charts provide the holistic context in which to interpret gymnosperm history. The first group of 10 charts are plotted to matching geological time scales and follow the interdependent histories of the most pertinent physical phenomena (plate tectonics, climate, extinction events) and the major terrestrial biological groups (plants, insects, tetrapods). A second set of 10 charts, again to the same scale, correlates the megaplant-bearing formations globally: it is the floras from these strata that provide the basis for the history outlined here. The third set of 10 charts constitute two pictorial essays, on the phytohistory of the Araucariaceae and on the comparative morphology of the extant gymnosperm families. In a chapter devoted to the ‘macroevolutionary life cycle of the gymnosperms’, a systematic coverage of floral kingdoms, biodiversity patterns, insect associations and other fields is traced period by period from the Devonian to Quaternary. Here is included an elaboration of the four major ‘phases’ (youth, adolescence, maturity, old age) and the lesser ‘pulses’ punctuating the life cycle. In a final chapter we touch on gymnosperm biodiversity trends at the microevolutionary (genera and species) level. This is done through documenting the known biodiversity at a selection of some 13 important formations (or localities) scattered globally and through the geological column. Though quite incomplete, the trends witnessed tend to parallel those plotted for macroevolutionary diversity.

Brief history of the gymnosperms: classification, biodiversity, phytogeography and ecology

Angiosperms first appeared in northern Gondwana during the Early Cretaceous, approximately 135 million years ago. Several authors have hypothesised that the origin of angiosperms, and the tempo and pattern of their subsequent radiation, was mediated by changes in the browsing behaviour of large herbivorous dinosaurs (sauropods and ornithischians). Moreover, the taxonomic and ecological radiation of angiosperms has been associated with the evolution of complex jaw mechanisms among ornithischian dinosaurs. Here, we review critically the evidence for dinosaur–angiosperm interactions during the Cretaceous Period, providing explicit spatiotemporal comparisons between evolutionary and palaeoecological events in both the dinosaur and angiosperm fossil records and an assessment of the direct and indirect evidence for dinosaur diets. We conclude that there are no strong spatiotemporal correlations in support of the hypothesis that dinosaurs were causative agents in the origin of angiosperms; however, dinosaur–angiosperm interactions in the Late Cretaceous may have resulted in some coevolutionary interactions, although direct evidence of such interactions is scanty at present. It is likely that other animal groups (insects, arboreal mammals) had a greater impact on angiosperm diversity during the Cretaceous than herbivorous dinosaurs. Elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 might have played a critical role in the initial stages of the angiosperm radiation.

Did dinosaurs invent flowers? Dinosaur–angiosperm coevolution revisited

-With the appearance and diversification of dinocephalian and anomodont terrestrial herbivores in the Permian, plants responded to this intense herbivory by deterrence and escape. Plant defenses recognized in glossopterids include: increase in undigestible carbon in the leaves, reduction in leaf size (microphylly), woodiness, chemical defense and protection of reproductive structures. This resulted in lower quality of herbage, requiring herbivores to evolve various feeding strategies. In Permian herbivores this is reflected in diversity of skull morphology, body size, body weight and bite size. In addition, high activity rates and possibly homeothermy may have evolved in these herbivores. This would permit the herbivores to respond to changing conditions in the quality and quantity of the herbage and dissipate excess heat due to high activity rate and stomach microbes.

Michael T. Mentis

Papers

Plant-animal Interaction: The Effect of Permian Megaherbivores on the Glossopterid Flora