Evolution of insect-mediated pollination indicated by Palaeogene flowers and insects from Central Europe

物种间的相互作用是物种生态和进化最重要的驱动力之一。在过去的几年里，对欧洲一些地区(梅塞尔、埃克菲尔德、恩斯佩尔)的古近纪植物/昆虫协会有了有趣的见解。然而，到目前为止，所有这些研究中完全被忽视的一个组成部分是昆虫/花的联系。由于它们不仅对花卉和昆虫具有出色的保存质量，而且还具有花粉配对和肠道内容物等直接证据，因此被调查的地点对研究昆虫/花卉组合提出了世界范围内的独特要求。这些都是多方面的，可以从植物学、昆虫学、生态学和进化论的角度进行研究，这些观点通常在授粉生物学的标题下进行总结。鉴于昆虫授粉是开花植物繁殖的主要方法，开花植物本身构成了古近纪和现代植物区系的大部分，昆虫在塑造主要生态系统中的作用不可低估。在这个项目中，将首次结合对昆虫与它们在温带生态系统中消费/访问的花之间的拮抗和互惠关系的定量研究，以回答以下问题：古近纪花的化石记录在多大程度上揭示了与昆虫授粉、被子植物辐射和被子植物成功有关的模式？化石数据能结合昆虫和花卉本身的形态特征来支持对深层互惠关系的评估吗？特定的互惠关系在地质时期有多稳定？最后，将获得对古近纪传粉者关系的特殊古生物学或古生态调整的估计。

Interactions among species are one of the most important drivers of the ecology and evolution of species. Throughout the last years, interesting insights into Palaeogene plant/insect associations from selected European localities (Messel, Eckfeld, Enspel) have been obtained. However, one component that was completely disregarded in all of these studies so far are the insect/flower associations. Because of their outstanding preservation quality of not just flowers and insects, but also direct evidence such as pollen-matching and gut content, the investigated localities offer world-wide unique requirements to study insect/flower associations. These are multifaceted and can be examined from botanical, entomological, ecological and evolutionary viewpoints that are often summarised under the heading of pollination biology. Given the fact that insect pollination is the dominant method of reproduction of flowering plants, which themselves comprise the bulk of the Palaeogene and modern flora, the role of insects in shaping major ecosystems cannot be underestimated. In this project, will combine for the first time quantitative studies of Palaeogene antagonistic and mutualistic associations between insects and their consumed/visited fowers from temperate ecosystems to answer following questions: To which extend does the fossil record of Palaeogene flowers reveal patterns relevant to insect pollination and angiosperm radiation and angiosperm success? Can the fossil data support an evaluation of mutualism in deep time coupled with morphological traits of the insects and flowers themselves? How stable are specific mutualistic relationships over geological time? Finally, estimates for special palaeobiological or palaeoecological adjustments for pollinator relationships in the Palaeogene will be obtained.