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Australian Journal of Botany Australian Journal of Botany Society
Southern hemisphere botanical ecosystems
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

New records of leaf galls and arthropod oviposition scars in Permian–Triassic Gondwanan gymnosperms

Stephen McLoughlin
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

Department of Paleobotany, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05, Stockholm, Sweden. Email: steve.mcloughlin@nrm.se

Australian Journal of Botany 59(2) 156-169 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT10297
Submitted: 8 November 2010  Accepted: 24 January 2011   Published: 28 March 2011

Journal Compilation © CSIRO Publishing 2011 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND

Abstract

Single, midrib-positioned galls and midrib-flanking oviposition scars are described from four species of Permian glossopterid foliage from Australia and South Africa. Several of these traces have been mistaken previously for glossopterid reproductive organs or fructification detachment scars. A single Early Triassic corystosperm leaf from Australia is reported bearing multiple disc-like galls on both the midrib and pinnules. A Middle Triassic taeniopterid gymnosperm leaf from Australia is described hosting oviposition scars between consecutive secondary veins flanking the midrib. These fossils attest to a much richer record of plant–arthropod interactions in the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic of high-latitude Gondwana than previously reported, and indicate that herbivory and reproductive strategies involving galling and foliar ovipositioning were re-established relatively soon after the end-Permian mass extinction event that saw major turnovers in both the flora and insect fauna.


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