Doklady herbivornich aktivit bezobratlych zivocichu na lokalite Kundratice – Jezuitska rokle v Ceskem stredohori (spodni oligocen, okres Litomerice, Ceska republika)

Volcanosedimentary complex of the České středohoří Mts., the formation of which dates largely to the Oligocene, is renowned for a number of paleontological sites – either historical or still productive. Paleontological finds reported from this region are represented especially by fossil flora. Less frequent, although described in much detail, are the remains of invertebrate (e.g., Prokop 2003) and vertebrate fauna (e.g., Obrhelová 1976, Böhme 2007).

The “classical” sites of the České středohoří Mts. include also the Jezuitská rokle Gorge (also, Jesuitengraben in English- and German-written literature) near the village of Kundratice, north of Litoměřice. Research at this site has been conducted since the late 19th century. Recently, students of the Faculty of the Environment of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem participated in the paleontological investigations at this site (Žambochová 2013, Pongrácová 2019). The former author reviews new collections of fossil material gathered for the purpose of the B.Sc. Thesis. The latter presents paleoecological analysis focused on traces of herbivorous invertebrate activity in these collections. The results are summarized in this paper. In addition, both studies contain an integral review of literature on this site, which is beyond the scope of this paper. For the purpose of the present study, a collection of 419 samples of fossil material was used, retrieved from the site during the period 2002–2012. After a primary taxonomic determination of the plants, a detailed analysis was made to identify all possible types of damage induced by animal tracemakers with the aim to define functional feeding groups (in a generalized concept, these include marginal and non-marginal excisions, skeletonization, mines and also traces after oviposition (ecdysichnia, sensu Vallon et al. 2016). The study considered only the types of damage on leaves because no other parts of plant organs were present in the fossil material (Labandeira 2002; Genise 2017). Our subsequent effort was to identify these trace fossils with the valid, or at least provisional, ichnotaxa.

In the studied collection, other categories of plant-animal interactions also occurred. These are especially galls. In the ethological concept of their genesis, galls usually pose only reaction tissue of a given plant, with no specific life manifestation of the tracemaker (Bertling et al. 2006). Moreover, their classification is not yet well established – Vallon et al. (2016) proposed the term “cecidotaxa”. For these reasons, these were not included in this study. Trace fossils induced by herbivorous invertebrates were found on 49 leaves, with a total of 80 trace fossil specimens. Altogether 11 ichnotaxa were confirmed: Phagophytichnus ekowskii, Phagophytichnus regularis, Phagophytichnus isp. “A”, Phagophytichnus isp. “B”, Phagophytichnus isp., ichnogenus “I” circumsecans, ichnogenus “I” isp. “B”, ichnogenus “I” isp. “C”, Folifenestra isp. “A”, Paleoovoidus isp. and Stigmellites isp.

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