Abstract
ABSTRACT We describe plant–arthropod associations from the Middle Pennsylvanian (late Bolsovian–early Asturian) Pennant Sandstone Formation of southern Britain. Our material comprises calcified cordaitaleans and tree-fern axes, preserved in braided channel deposits, and interpreted as remains of subhumid riparian vegetation distinct from that of coeval coal swamps. The first plant–arthropod association, attributed to herbivorous insects, comprises cambial damage to cordaitalean leafy branches, resulting in traumatic wound response. The second and most widespread association, attributable to detritivorous oribatid mites, includes tunnels and galleries containing widely scattered, clustered, or densely packed microcoprolites within the inner root mantle of marattialean tree ferns and cordaitalean trunks and branches. Diameter data for tunnels and microcoprolites are multimodal, recording four or five instars of oribatid mites that parallel instar-based fecal pellet and body lengths in modern taxa. The third...
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