South African Lagerstätte reveals middle Permian Gondwanan lakeshore ecosystem in exquisite detail

Abstract

Continental ecosystems of the middle Permian Period (273–259 million years ago) are poorly understood. In South Africa, the vertebrate fossil record is well documented for this time interval, but the plants and insects are virtually unknown, and are rare globally. This scarcity of data has hampered studies of the evolution and diversification of life, and has precluded detailed reconstructions and analyses of ecosystems of this critical period in Earth’s history. Here we introduce a new locality in the southern Karoo Basin that is producing exceptionally well-preserved and abundant fossils of novel freshwater and terrestrial insects, arachnids, and plants. Within a robust regional geochronological, geological and biostratigraphic context, this Konservat- and Konzentrat-Lagerstätte offers a unique opportunity for the study and reconstruction of a southern Gondwanan deltaic ecosystem that thrived 266–268 million years ago, and will serve as a high-resolution ecological baseline towards a better understanding of Permian extinction events.

Not the first leech: An unusual worm from the early Silurian of Wisconsin

“…Leeches (subclass Hirudinea) are aquatic or terrestrial, parasitic or predatory, soft-bodied vermiform segmented clitellate annelids, with a nonsegmented prostomium (cephalized first body segment), an anterior (oral) sucker, a muscular body, and a posterior (anal) sucker to attach to hosts. Putative leech fossils are known from the Eocene Monte Bolca Lagerstätte of Italy (Alessandrello, 1990), the Jurassic Solnhofen Lagerstätte of Germany (two taxa; Kozur, 1970), a middle Permian Lagerstätte in South Africa (Prevec et al, 2022, fig. 5l), and the Upper Pennsylvanian (305 Ma) Kinney Brick Quarry Lagerstätte of New Mexico, USA (Lerner et al, 2004).…”

Discovery of the First Blattinopsids of the Genus <em>Glaphyrophlebia</em> Handlirsch, 1906 (Paoliida: Blattinopsidae) in the Upper Carboniferous of Southern France and Spain and Hypothesis on the Diversification of the Family

“…In fact, the late Carboniferous is renowned for its 'Coal Forests' -widely distributed in Europe and North America around the equator -that developed under everwet conditions sometimes with a drier season [22]. Later, during the Pennsylvanian, a dramatic collapse of these rainforests began (commonly called the Carboniferous rainforest collapse, CRC), and led by the early Permian to their replacement in many regions by dryland vegetation as a more arid climate developed [23,24]. We investigate a plausible link between these events and the diversification of the Blattinopsidae, a link that could be extended to other insect lineages.…”

Excavating the fossil record for evidence of leaf mining

“…It is challenging for paleontologists to decipher the evolution of arthropod herbivory through deep time. The record of insect body fossils is sparse; many are restricted to isolated mass assemblages (so-called lagerst€ atten: Prevec et al, 2022); hence, it is difficult to track insect lineages and mouthpart evolution over geological timescales. However, in the absence of a rich and continuous insect body fossil record, the abundant assemblages of plant fossils around the world record a wealth of damage traces that allow paleontologists to assess how particular feeding guilds changed in abundance, diversity, and sophistication through time, and how they responded to major perturbations in climate, mass-extinction events, and shifting continental configurations.…”