Evidence from the fossil record on insect response to climate change

Abstract Earth’s climate has fluctuated significantly since the meteorite impact 66 million years ago that caused a mass extinction and set ecosystems on their trajectory to the modern. Both insect body fossils and insect herbivore damage preserved on fossil leaves have been used to study the effects of ancient climate changes on insect ecology, evolution and physiology. This chapter reviews insect responses to long-term Cenozoic climate trends, cyclic variations driven by orbital parameters and geologically abrupt climate events. The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (56 million years ago) provides the best ancient analog for modern anthropogenic warming and documents significant insect migrations and increased herbivory as temperature and carbon dioxide levels rose. Insects have shown resilience to past climate change yet anthropogenic climate and landscape changes are at least an order of magnitude faster than anything observed in Earth’s past, or at least anything except meteorite impacts.