RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Metagenomics reveals that Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) broadly feed on Reptile dung and could feed on that of Dinosaurs
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.12.27.521994
DO 10.1101/2022.12.27.521994
A1 Fernando Lopes
A1 Michele Rossini
A1 Federica Losacco
A1 Giulio Montanaro
A1 Nicole Gunter
A1 Sergei Tarasov
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/12/27/2022.12.27.521994.abstract
AB According to traditional views, the evolution of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) and their feeding habits are largely attributed to mammal dung. In this paper, we challenge this view and provide evidence that many dung beetle communities are actually associated with the dung of reptiles and birds (= Sauropsida). In turn, this indicates that sauropsid dung may have played a crucial evolutionary role that was previously underestimated. We argue that it is physiologically realistic to consider that coprophagy in dung beetles could have evolved during the Cretaceous in response to the massive amount of dung produced by dinosaurs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that sauropsid dung may be one of the major factors driving the emergence of insular dung beetle communities across the globe. We support our findings with amplicon-metagenomic analyses, trapping experiments, and meta-analysis of the published literature.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.