Urticaceae leaves with stinging trichomes were already present in latest early Eocene Okanogan Highlands, British Columbia, Canada

Authors

Melanie L. DeVore, Georgia College & State University
Alphonse Nyandwi, University of Rwanda
Winnie Eckardt, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Elias Bizuru, University of Rwanda
Myriam Mujawamariya, University of Rwanda
Kathleen B. Pigg, Arizona State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Publication Title

American Journal of Botany

Abstract

Premise: Paleontologists use tooth form to assess diets of fossil mammals. Plants would also be expected to adapt their morphology to respond to herbivory. Fossil nettle leaves with definitive stinging trichomes (tribe Urticeae, family Urticaceae) are described from the early Eocene upland lacustrine floras of the Okanogan Highlands, British Columbia, Canada. This is the first report of stinging trichomes in the fossil record. Their occurrence in western North America at a time of major large herbivorous mammal radiation suggests they acted, as they do today, as a deterrent for mammal herbivory. Methods: Fossil leaf compressions and extant leaves were photographed with standard methods. Focus-shift stacking was used to layer photos of the fossil leaves. Results: Urticaceous fossil leaves from the Okanogan Highlands greatly resemble their modern relatives in leaf morphology and particularly in both stinging and nonstinging trichomes. Nettles are common components of the flora of the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. This region is used as a modern analogue for the Okanogan Highlands, based on comparable elevation, equable conditions that host both similar floras and large folivores. Conclusions: Nettles in tribe Urticeae (Urticaceae) producing leaves with stinging and nonstinging trichomes were already present in the early Eocene of western North America at a pivotal time during the early radiation of modern mammalian herbivore groups. They offer tantalizing evidence of a selective response that plants may have developed to protect themselves from the evolving mammalian herbivores of that time.

Department

Biological and Environmental Sciences

Volume Number

107

Issue Number

10

First Page

1449

Last Page

1456

Comments

© 2020 Botanical Society of America

DOI

10.1002/ajb2.1548

Recommended Citation

DeVore, M. L., Nyandwi, A., Eckardt, W., Bizuru, W., Mujawamariya, M., & Pigg, K. A. (2020). Urticaceae leaves with stinging trichomes were already present in latest early Eocene Okanogan Highlands, British Columbia, Canada. American Journal of Botany, 107(10), 1449-1456.