Fossil plant biodamages from the Belaya Kalitva Formation (upper Bashkirian, Carboniferous) of the Donets Basin, Ukraine

Abstract

Biodamages of terrestrial plants caused mainly by terrestrial arthropods, e.g. millipedes, mites, and insects, were studied from siltstones of the middle part of the Belaya Kalitva Formation (late Bashkirian, Carboniferous) of the southern part of Luhansk Region, eastern Ukraine. The traces studied were assigned to 13 damage types (DT) of the numerological systematics developed by Labandeira et al. (2007): external foliage feeding DTs03, 12, 13, 14, 15, 75, 78, 81, 103; piercing-and-sucking DT46; galling DT146; oviposition DT102 and DT108. All studied biodamages come from sediments of a shallow lake located on a coastal accumulative lowland. Compared to evidence of animal-plant interactions of a more ancient Mospyne Formation, plant biodamages from the Belaya Kalitva Formation have some characteristic features, e.g. the absence of traces of fungi and, generally, a higher frequency of biodamages. As in the Mospyne Formation, the Belaya Kalitva Formation lacks traces of seed feeding.