Overview of Fossil Beetles

Abstract

Beetles have a well-preserved, abundant Quaternary fossil record in many regions of the world. Fossil beetle research has led to many exciting breakthroughs in our understanding of the pace and intensity of climate change in terrestrial landscapes. Beetles are the most diverse group of organisms on Earth, with more than one million species known to science. A large proportion of beetle species are known to be quite sensitive to environmental change, and to shift their distributions across continents in order to become established in regions of suitable environment (Elias, 1994). Fossil beetle assemblages have been recovered from a wide variety of sedimentary environments, especially anoxic water-lain sediments that concentrate the remains in layers of organic detritus. Their remains are easily extracted from sediments, and faunal assemblages frequently include more than 100 identified species. Paleoclimatic reconstructions based on beetle assemblage data have demonstrated the same rapid, large-scale changes in temperatures seen in oxygen isotope records from Greenland. Beetle assemblages also provide highly detailed reconstructions of other aspects of past environments, including vegetation, substrates, and water quality. Beetle and other arthropod remains are also making significant contributions to the field of environmental archaeology. New analytical methods are being developed to analyze both stable isotopes and ancient DNA from ancient beetle chitin specimens. The former will provide an independent paleotemperature proxy and the latter is shedding light on the Late Pleistocene phylogenetics of beetles.