insects at K/T boundary

[Heinz Hilbrecht <Hilbrecht@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Paleonetters,

while watching a new show on the evolution of life, from an excellent
Japanese TV series (thank you Japan !), my wife rose the question on the
reaction of insects on the K/T boundary event. Given that many insects live
very closely related to plants they should have suffered a lot if the plant
life was largely eliminated during an impact (by fire, years long winter
conditions, acid rain, etc.). When the destruction of flora reduced the
food supply to dinosaurs and caused (among other factors) the extinction of
these popular animals, shouldn't we expect a similar effect on insects? Or
can they hibernate for a couple of years and, therefore, survive a major
catastrophe?

What is the present knowledge on abundance and evolution of insects across
the K/T boundary? Are some insects a "model organisms" that could provide
data to test for faunal extinction scenarios related to destruction of the
flora?

Looking forward to the discussion (and being sorry for limited knowledge on
evolution of insects).

Heinz Hilbrecht



Address:

Dr. Heinz Hilbrecht
Geological Institute
ETH Zentrum
Sonneggstr. 5
CH-8092 Zuerich
Switzerland

++41-1-6323676 (phone)
++41-1-6321080 (fax)
Hilbrecht@erdw.ethz.ch
http://www.erdw.ethz.ch/~heinz/welcome.html