Pennisi E
Science. 2000 Jul 14;289(5477):229-31. doi: 10.1126/science.289.5477.229.
On page 291, researchers describe a new beetle fossil based not on traces of the insect skeleton but on the distinctive gouges the beetles left when they munched on 11 ginger leaves many millions of years ago. The chew marks of the newly described Cephaloleichnites strongi prove that leaf beetles underwent rapid evolution and diversification more than 65 million years ago, possibly taking advantage of (and perhaps influencing) the rapid diversification among flowering plants occurring at the same time. What's more, C. strongi represents the earliest known rolled-leaf beetle species, hundreds of which today still prefer just one of the ginger- and heliconia-like plants in the Zingiberales order.
在第291页，研究人员描述了一种新的甲虫化石，其依据并非昆虫骨骼的痕迹，而是数百万年前这些甲虫啃食11片姜叶时留下的独特凹痕。新描述的强壮头迹叶甲（Cephaloleichnites strongi）的咬痕证明，叶甲在6500多万年前经历了快速进化和多样化，可能利用了（或许也影响了）同时期开花植物的快速多样化。此外，强壮头迹叶甲代表了已知最早的卷叶甲虫物种，如今仍有数百种卷叶甲虫只偏爱姜目植物中类似姜和蝎尾蕉的某一种植物。
