What Bugged the Dinosaurs?: Insects, Disease, and Death in the Cretaceous

Contents

Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. Fossils: A Time Capsule 7 2. The Cretaceous: A Time of Change 17 3. Herbivory 37 4. Dinosaurs Competing with Insects 50 5. Did Dinosaurs or Insects “Invent” Flowering Plants? 55 6. Pollination 57 7. Blights and Diseases of Cretaceous Plants 63 8. The Cretaceous: Age of Chimeras and Other Oddities 72 9. Sanitary Engineers of the Cretaceous 79 10. The Case for Entomophagy among Dinosaurs 91 11. Gorging on Dinosaurs 102 12. Biting Midges 110 13. Sand Flies 116 14. Mosquitoes 122 15. Blackflies 127 16. Horseflies and Deerflies 131 17. Fleas and Lice 135 18. Ticks and Mites 141 19. Parasitic Worms 147 20. The Discovery of Cretaceous Diseases 157 21. Diseases and the Evolution of Pathogens 171 22. Insects: The Ultimate Survivors 185 23. Extinctions and the K/T Boundary 192 APPENDIX A: Cretaceous Hexapoda 203 APPENDIX B: Key Factors Contributing to the Survival of Terrestrial Animals 219 APPENDIX C: Problems with Evaluating the Fossil Record and Extinctions 221 References 225 Index 253 viii – CONTENTS ...