- Q2.
- Don’t the insects that made the damage fossilize too? How can you tell who made the trace?
- A2.
- Not usually. Leaf damage is common in the fossil record, but the insects that made it are much harder to preserve.
Explanation
In some cases, the plant-feeding arthropods can also be preserved as body fossils, but they rarely remain together with the same rock as the damaged plants. Many herbivorous insects are small and soft-bodied, so they are less likely to fossilize, and the conditions that preserve leaves are often different from those that preserve delicate animal bodies.

