First plant-insect interactions on Cretaceous Caytoniales (genus Sagenopteris) from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) of Spain

Specimens of the extinct seed fern Sagenopteris were evaluated from the Lower Cretaceous of Alcaine village in Teruel Province, north-eastern Spain. Arthropod-mediated plant damage types (DTs) were categorized for 75 specimens of this host. The leaflets occur in deposits of coastal fluvial and lacustrine environments linked to an Albian delta-estuary system. It is the first time that insect herbivory has been reported on Early Cretaceous Caytoniales. Five Functional Feeding Groups have been identified: hole feeding, margin feeding, skeletonization, mining, and piercing and sucking), which correspond to a wide variety of feeding strategies on leaflets. [Display omitted] •First evidence of interactions on leaves from an Early Cretaceous pteridosperm.•Several Functional Feeding Groups on leaflets of Albian Caytoniales.•A wide variety of insect damages on a single leaflet of Sagenopteris.