Trace fossils of animal‐plant interactions and “pseudointeractions” from maletín (Bohemian cretaceous basin, Czech Republic)

Abstract

Old collections of the Upper Cretaceous flora at Maletín yield examples of trace fossils of plant‐arthropod interactions, comparable with recent insect galls. Grooves and ridges, often preserved on leaves at this locality, are (in contradiction to several previous authors) interpreted as traces of burrowing organisms, which originated in soft sediment adjacent to the plant remains lying on a lake floor or buried in the substrate. The leaves functioned in the sediment at the time of burrowing and/or during compaction of the substrate as distinctive laminar bodies with specific physical characteristics and therefore they enabled the preservation of some aspects of ichnofabric otherwise invisible in the surrounding strata.

Key words:

• Non‐marine ichnofossils
• animal‐plant interactions
• Cretaceous
• Czech Republic

Notes

Correspondence Author.