Understanding the ecology of host plant–insect herbivore interactions in the fossil record through bipartite networks—Corrigendum

Abstract

. — Plant – insect associations have been a signi fi cant component of terrestrial ecology for more than 400 Myr. Exploring these interactions in the fossil record through novel perspectives provides a window into understanding evolutionary and ecological forces that shaped these interactions. For the past several decades, researchers have documented, described, and categorized fossil evidence of these interactions. Drawing on powerful tools from network science, we propose here a bipartite network representation of fossilized plants and their herbivore-induced leaf damage to understand late Paleozoic plant – insect interactions at the local community level. We focus on four assemblages from north-central Texas, but the methods used in this work are general and can be applied to any well-preserved fossil fl ora. Network analysis can address key questions in the evolution of insect herbivory that often would be dif fi cult to summarize using standard herbivory metrics.