Biodiversity of bugs (Heteroptera) from the Eocene Messel pit (Germany), from Green River (USA) and from other Paleogene fossil sites, with an analysis of their biogeographic significance

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The rise of today’s biodiversity of insects and the general course and process of evolution of insect biodiversity during the Cenozoic are still largely unknown. The same applies for many questions concerning the historical biogeography of insects and possible interrelationships between climate change and biogeographic diversity patterns. In this study, heteropteran insects (Insecta: Heteroptera) are taken as a showcase for illuminating differences and similarities of biodiversity in different Paleogene fossil sites. A focus will lie on the investigation of the biodiversity of Eocene Heteroptera, with emphasis on the faunas from Messel (Germany) and Green River (USA). The heteropteran faunas from other early to middle Paleogene fossil sites will also be studied, including the Eckfeld maar (Germany), Menat (France) and Baltic amber (Russia and adjacent regions). Biogeographic questions concerning selected heteropteran groups will be addressed and will be put into a broader context of biogeographic history, considering both extant and fossil groups. Possible pathways of biogeographic processes and diversification will be reconstructed, relying on the base of already existent phylogenies. The comparison of different fossil sites will stimulate addressing issues concerning taphonomy and contingency. Depending on the results of the first two years the course of action for the third year of this project will be decided.