Insect herbivory on early angiosperms from the lower cretaceous of Northwest China

Insect herbivory on fossil angiosperm leaves was recorded from the upper Lower Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation in the Hanxia Section of the Jiuquan Basin, Gansu Province, NW China. Four functional feeding groups, including hole feeding, margin feeding, skeletonisation, and galling were recognised on nine fossil angiosperm leaves belonging to three species of eudicot. Ten insect damage types (DTs), including DT01, DT02, DT03, DT12, DT14, DT15, DT26, DT32, DT34, and DT61, were identified based on the insect damage morphotypes. Combined with the fossil records of insects reported from the Lower Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation of Jiuquan Basin, these suggest that there were various herbivorous insects that are related to the insect DTs, such as Blattoidea, Hemiptera, Diptera, Orthoptera, and Coleopterathe, which can related to the insects DTs, and indicate a diversified herbivorous insectangiosperm community in Jiuquan Basin during the late Early Cretaceous. Moreover, the diversified terrestrial ecosystem and fluctuating wet and dry climate in Jiuquan Basin during the late Early Cretaceous, would provide a suitable condition for the radiation of herbaceous angiosperms in Jiuquan Basin during the Aptian-Albian gap and promoting the coevolution of early angiosperms and their related herbivores.