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Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect

Mimicry and secondary defense are staples among predator–prey interactions. Among insects, the stick and leaf insects are masters of camouflage. Nonetheless, a meager understanding of their origin and early mimetic evolution persists. Here, we report the earliest mimetic and defensive strategies of...

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Autores principales: Yang, Hongru, Shi, Chaofan, Engel, Michael S, Zhao, Zhipeng, Ren, Dong, Gao, Taiping
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8288419/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34691548
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa056
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author Yang, Hongru
Shi, Chaofan
Engel, Michael S
Zhao, Zhipeng
Ren, Dong
Gao, Taiping
author_facet Yang, Hongru
Shi, Chaofan
Engel, Michael S
Zhao, Zhipeng
Ren, Dong
Gao, Taiping
author_sort Yang, Hongru
collection PubMed
description Mimicry and secondary defense are staples among predator–prey interactions. Among insects, the stick and leaf insects are masters of camouflage. Nonetheless, a meager understanding of their origin and early mimetic evolution persists. Here, we report the earliest mimetic and defensive strategies of a stick insect from the Middle Jurassic of China, Aclistophasma echinulatum gen. et sp. nov., exquisitely preserving abdominal extensions and femoral spines. The distribution of these characteristics mapped onto the phylogeny of Phasmatodea reveals that abdominal extensions and femoral spines developed multiple times during the evolution of stick insects, and indicates that the origin of abdominal extensions predates other modifications, while tergal extensions predate other expansions of the body, such as those of the sterna and pleura, as well as defensive femoral spines. The new fossil provides clues into early antipredator defensive strategies, allows inferences as to the potential environment and predators, and reveals the mimetic and defensive mechanisms of stick insects from 165 million years ago.
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spelling pubmed-82884192021-10-21 Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect Yang, Hongru Shi, Chaofan Engel, Michael S Zhao, Zhipeng Ren, Dong Gao, Taiping Natl Sci Rev Earth Sciences Mimicry and secondary defense are staples among predator–prey interactions. Among insects, the stick and leaf insects are masters of camouflage. Nonetheless, a meager understanding of their origin and early mimetic evolution persists. Here, we report the earliest mimetic and defensive strategies of a stick insect from the Middle Jurassic of China, Aclistophasma echinulatum gen. et sp. nov., exquisitely preserving abdominal extensions and femoral spines. The distribution of these characteristics mapped onto the phylogeny of Phasmatodea reveals that abdominal extensions and femoral spines developed multiple times during the evolution of stick insects, and indicates that the origin of abdominal extensions predates other modifications, while tergal extensions predate other expansions of the body, such as those of the sterna and pleura, as well as defensive femoral spines. The new fossil provides clues into early antipredator defensive strategies, allows inferences as to the potential environment and predators, and reveals the mimetic and defensive mechanisms of stick insects from 165 million years ago. Oxford University Press 2020-04-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8288419/ /pubmed/34691548 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa056 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of China Science Publishing & Media Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Earth Sciences
Yang, Hongru
Shi, Chaofan
Engel, Michael S
Zhao, Zhipeng
Ren, Dong
Gao, Taiping
Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect
title Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect
title_full Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect
title_fullStr Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect
title_full_unstemmed Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect
title_short Early specializations for mimicry and defense in a Jurassic stick insect
title_sort early specializations for mimicry and defense in a jurassic stick insect
topic Earth Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8288419/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34691548
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa056
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