Plant-Arthropod interactions in the Late Palaeozoic

Schabenflügel (Oberes Karbon, Stefan C)

Since the first land plants in the Ordovician appeared preconditions for terrestrial animal life were given. As a consequence in the Devonian and Carboniferous the first forests in earth history evolved housing already a number of early arthropods, e.g. insects such as cockroaches, Protodonata with wingspans up to 70 cm or giant arthropods such as Arthropleura, which could be up to 2.50 m long. The project focuses on the rarely investigated paleoecological interactions between plants and arthropods in the Late Palaeozoic (cooperation with Corinna Hoff, Halle/Saale).

Selected Publications

Laaß, M. and Hoff, C. (2013):
The first evidence of insect endophytic oviposition from the Wettin Member of the Siebigerode Formation of the Saale Basin (Upper Carboniferous, Stefanian C, Gzhelian). In: Reitner, J., Qun, Y., Yongdong, W. and Reich, M. (Eds.): Palaeobiology and Geobiology of Fossil Lagerstätten through Earth History. Abstract Volume , Göttingen, Universitätsdrucke: 94