Comment--Advanced Early Jurassic Termite (Insecta: Isoptera) Nests: Evidence from the Clarens Formation in the Tuli Basin, Southern Africa (Bordy et al., 2004)

Abstract

“The characteristics of termite nests are better understood if the main requirements of these insects are kept in mind (Noirot, 1970, p. 102). More than the gross architecture, some details may be significant…A very precise description of the chambers and galleries would be necessary…” (Noirot, 1977, p. 179) Insect paleoichnology, being a young discipline, needs to gain acceptance and recognition as a sister counterpart of paleoentomology and entomology. Accordingly, the analyses and discussions to ascertain the attribution of continental trace fossils to insects should be carried out very carefully. Such analysis (e.g., Machado, 1983; Sands, 1987) for fossil termite nests, which is lacking in the recent contribution by Bordy et al. (2004) on supposed Jurassic termite nests, is critical, because their results are at odds with our previous knowledge of the evolutionary history of termites and their relationship with coevolving groups of plants and fungi. Many invertebrate trace fossils are more preservable than their constructors are. For example, fossil bee nests predate the oldest known bees by about 25 My (Elliot and Nations, 1998; Genise, 2000; Engel, 2000), which is an expected gap. In contrast, the gap between the oldest termites, which come from the Lower Cretaceous (Jarzembowski, 1981; Martinez-Delclos and Martinell, 1995), and the supposed termite nests described by Bordy et al. (2004) would be about 60 My. However, it is neither the time involved nor the difficulties of imagining fungus-growing termites in an early Jurassic environment deprived of Basidiomycotina and grasses that promoted this comment. Instead, it is the understanding that the description and affinities of the Tuli structures are not treated with the necessary detail and their termitic origin was not demonstrated. Termite nests comprise closed and dynamic systems, largely isolated from the external environment, within which the microclimate can be …