Carmichael’s Concise Review Coming Events
2019 High Content Imaging 2019 February 12, 2019
Nottingham, UK
www.rms.org.uk/discover-engage/eventcalendar/ an-introduction-to-high-contentimaging.html
Cell Symposium: Single Cells: Technology to Biology February, 24–26, 2019
Singapore
www.cell-symposia.com/single-cells/
default.asp
Biophysical Society 63rd Annual Meeting March 2–6, 2019 Baltimore, MD
www.biophysics.org/Meetings/AnnualMeeting/ FutureAnnualMeetings/tabid/495/
Default.aspx
PITTCON Conference & Expo 2019 March 17–21, 2019
Philadelphia, PA
https://pittcon.org
ACS Spring Meeting: Chemistry for New Frontiers March 31–April 4, 2019 Orlando, FL
www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/ national-meeting/abstract-submission. html?sc=meetings_1800815_mtg_%20OR19_od
FOM2019: Focus on Microscopy 2019 April 14–17, 2019
London, UK
www.microbeamanalysis.eu/events/ event/57-fom2019-focus-on-microscopy-2019
MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit April 22–26, 2019
Phoenix, AZ
www.mrs.org/spring2019
Microscopy & Microanalysis 2019 August 4–8, 2019
Portland, OR
www.microscopy.org
2020 Microscopy & Microanalysis 2020 August 2–6, 2020
Milwaukee, WI
www.microscopy.org
2021
Microscopy & Microanalysis 2021 August 1–5, 2021
Pittsburgh, PA
www.microscopy.org
2022 Microscopy & Microanalysis 2022 July 31–August 4, 2022
Portland, OR
www.microscopy.org
2023
Microscopy & Microanalysis 2023 July 24–28, 2023
Minneapolis, MN
www.microscopy.org
More Meetings and Courses Check the complete calendar near the back of this magazine.
8 Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, cycads dominated the plant life. Cycads
are gymnosperms that are characterized by “naked” seeds, oſten in cones. Modern examples are conifers and Ginkgo, which are pollinated by the wind. Later in geologic time flowering plants (angiosperms) dominated; they are mostly pollinated by flying insects such as bees and butterflies. Interestingly cycads are pollinated typically by beetles. Today there are more than 380,000 named species of beetles constituting almost 25% of known life forms on our planet. A relatively small family of beetles, the Broganiidae, is characterized by large mouthparts that are specialized for pollination. Today broganiids are found in nature only in the Southern hemisphere, leading to the suggestion that they evolved before the eventual breakup of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana about 167 million years ago to form our continents. Although it is well documented that cycads were diverse and abundant during
the mid-Mesozoic era when Gondwana began splitting, little is known about their distribution and pollination before the rise of angiosperms. Te recent discovery of a beetle in a piece of amber from Myanmar (Figure 1), by Chenyang Cai and an international team of scientists [1], may fill in some of the gap in this knowledge. Te fossil record for these small (2 mm long) beetles and cycad pollen grains
(20 μm long) is very sparse because of the rarity of preserving them in a manner that reveals morphologic detail. Cai et al. solved this problem by examining extant boganiid beetles. Using scanning electron microscopy, they demonstrated the presence of small cavities in mouth parts (specifically the mandible) of these beetles. Te cavities contained bristles that facilitate the transfer of pollen between plants (Figure 2). Te piece of amber examined by Cai et al. was determined to be about 99 million years
old. Te mouth parts of the beetle were examined by light microscopy and were found to have characteristics of boganiid beetles. Tese and other structures led Cai et al. to name this beetle as a new species, Cretoparacucujus cycadophilus. Cretoparacucujus was compared to modern beetles that pollinate gymnosperms in the Southern hemisphere. Remarkably, several pollen grains are present in the same piece of amber. Although
it was not possible to definitively identify these grains as coming from cycads, they may have. If this is the case, Cai et al. have demonstrated for the first time that insect pollination occurred much earlier in the fossil record than previously demonstrated. Since previous findings have shown that both beetles and cycads coexisted at least
Did Beetles Pollinate Ancient Plants? Stephen W. Carmichael Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905
carmichael.stephen@
mayo.edu
Figure 1: Light microscope image of dorsal view of Cretoparacucujus cycadophilus in amber showing mandibular cavities. Image width = 2 mm.
doi:10.1017/S1551929518001281 2019 January
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