Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Conrad Labandeira

Senior Research Geologist and Curator of Fossil Arthropods
Department / Division
Education
  • Ph.D., University of Chicago
  • B.A., California State University, Fresno
  • M.S., University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Research Interests

Interactions between plants and insects in the fossil record; terrestrial fossil arthropods, particularly insects; evolution of insect mouthparts; fossil insect diversity.

Publications
Journal Article
Book Chapter
  • Mccoy, Victoria E., Wappler, Torsten, and Labandeira, Conrad C. 2021. "Exceptional Fossilization of Ecological Interactions: Plant Defenses During the Four Major Expansions of Arthropod Herbivory in the Fossil Record." In Fossilization: Understanding the Material Nature of Ancient Plants and Animals. Gee, C. T., Mccoy, Victoria E., and Sander, P. M., editors. 187–220. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2019. "The fossil record of insect mouthparts: Innovation, functional convergence and associations with other organisms." In Insect Mouthparts--Form, Function, Development and Performance. Krenn, Harald, editor. 567–671. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. In Zoological Monographs, 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29654-4_17.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. and Sues, Hans-Dieter. 2019. "Species Interaction." In Foundations of Paleoecology: Classic Papers with Commentaries. Lyons, S. Kathleen, Behrensmeyer, Anna K., and Wagner, Peter J., editors. 497–500. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2018. "The deep-time history of insect biodiversity." In Insect biodiversity : science and society. Volume II. Foottit, Robert G. and Adler, Peter H., editors. 723–788. Chichester, UK: Wiley Blackwell.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C., Anderson, John M., and Anderson, Heidi M. 2017. "Expansion of Arthropod Herbivory in Late Triassic South Africa: The Molteno Biota, Aasvoëlberg 411 Site and Developmental Biology of a Gall." In The Late Triassic World: Earth in a Time of Transition. Tanner, Larry H., editor. 623–719. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, Cham. In Topics in Geobiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68009-5_14.
  • Buatois, Luìs A., Labandeira, Conrad C., Mángano, M. Gabriela, Cohen, Andrew, and Voigt, Sebastian. 2016. "The Mesozoic Lacustrine Revolution." In The Trace Fossil Record of Major Evolutionary Events. Volume 2: Mesozoic and Cenozoic. (Topics in Geobiology v.40). Mángano, M. G. and Buatois, Luis A., editors. 179–324. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2016. "How I became a paleobiologist." In We Discover. Guttman, Marc, editor. 312–328. Marc Guttman.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C., Rodríguez-Tovar, Francisco J., and Uchman, Alfred. 2016. "The End-Cretaceous Extinction and Ecosystem Change." In The Trace-Fossil Record of Major Evolutionary Events. Mángano, M. Gabriela and Buatois, Luis A., editors. 265–300. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. 40 in Topics in Geobiology ; vol. 2..
  • Minter, Nicholas J., Buatois, Luis A., Mángano, M. Gabriela, Davies, Neil S., Gibling, Martin R., and Labandeira, Conrad C. 2016. "The Establishment of Continental Ecosystems." In The Trace-Fossil Record of Major Evolutionary Events. v.1: Precambrian and Paleozoic. Mángano, M. Gabriela and Buatois, Luis A., editors. 205–324. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. In Topics in Geobiology 39. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9600-2_6.
  • Wilf, Peter and Labandeira, Conrad C. 2015. "The Fossil Record of Mutualisms." In Mutualism. Bronstein, Judith L., editor. 39–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2014. "Why Did Terrestrial Insect Diversity Not Increase During the Angiosperm Radiation? Mid-Mesozoic, Plant-Associated Insect Lineages Harbor Clues." In Evolutionary Biology: Genome Evolution, Speciation, Coevolution and Origin of Life. Pontarotti, Pierre, editor. 261–299. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07623-2_13.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2014. "Amber." In Reading and Writing of the Fossil Record: Preservational Pathways to Exceptional Fossilization: Presented as a Paleontological Society Short Course at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, Vancouver, British Columbia, October 18, 2014. LaFlamme, M., Schiffbauer, J. D., and Darroch, S. A. F., editors. 163–215. Ithaca: Paleontological Society. In Paleontological Society Papers v.20.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2012. "Evidence for Outbreaks from the Fossil Record of Insect Herbivory." In Insect Outbreaks Revisited. Barbosa, Pedro, Letourneau, Deborah K., and Agrawal, Anurag A., editors. 267–290. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118295205.ch13.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2010. "Pollination mutualism in insects before the evolution of flowers." In McGraw Hill encyclopedia of science & technology. 10th ed. Licker, Marc, Blumel, David, and Malmoli, Stefan, editors. 250–252. McGraw Hill.
  • Shih, ChungKun, Labandeira, Conrad C., Ren, Dong, and Zhang, Weiing. 2010. "Pollination and "flower" visits." In Silent Stories--Insect Fossil Treasures from the Dinosaur Era of Northeastern China. Ren, Dong, Shih, ChungKun, Gao, Taiping, Yao, Yunzhi, and Zhao, Yunyun, editors. 296–310. Beijing: Science Press.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2008. "Neuroptera." In McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of Science for 2008. Licker, Marc, editor. McGraw-Hill.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2007. "Assessing the fossil record of plant-insect associations: ichnodata versus body-fossil data." In Sediment-Organism Interactions: A Multifaceted Ichnology. Bromley, Richard G., Buatois, Luis A., Genise, Jorge F., Mágano, M. Gabriela, and Melchor, Ricardo N., editors. 9–26. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists. In SEPM Special Publication, 88.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2007. "Devonian: Insect and other arthropod associations. Carboniferous: Insect associations. Permian: Insect associations. Triassic: Insect associations. Jurassic: Insect associations. Cretaceous: Insect associations. Tertiary: Insect associations." In Brief History of the Gymnosperms: Classification, Biodiversity, Phytogeography and Ecology. Anderson, John M., Anderson, Heidi M., and Cleal, Chris J., editors. 72–87. Pretoria: South African National Biodiversity Institute. In Strelitzia (no. 20).
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2005. "Fossil history of the Diptera and their associations with plants." In The Evolutionary Biology of Flies. Wiegmann, B. and Yeates, D., editors. 217–273. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Kowalewski, Michal, Kelley, Patricia H., Bambach, Richard K., Baumiller, Tomasz K., Bengtson, Stefan, Brett, Carleton E., Chin, Karen, Culver, Stephen J., Dietl, Gregory P., Farlow, James O., Gahn, Forest J., Haynes, Gary, Holtz,Thomas R., Jr., Jenkins, Ian, Labandeira, Conrad C., Lipps, JereH, Van Valkenburgh, Blaire, Vermeij, Geerat J., and Walker, Sally E. 2002. "The fossil record of predation: methods, patterns, and processes." In The Fossil Record of Predation. Kowalewski, Michal and Kelley, Patricia H., editors. 395–398. Cambridge University Press. In Paleontological Society Special Papers, 8.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2002. "Paleobiology of predators, parasitoids, and parasites: accommodation and death in the fossil record of terrestrial invertebrates." In The Fossil Record of Predation. Kowalewski, Michal and Kelley, Patricia H., editors. 211–250. Cambridge University Press. In Paleontological Society Special Papers, 8.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2002. "The history of associations between plants and animals." In Plant-Animal Interactions: An Evolutionary Approach. Herrera, C. and Pellmyr, O., editors. 26–74, 248-61. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Science.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C., Johnson, Kirk R., and Lang, Peter. 2002. "A preliminary assessment of insect herbivory across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary: extinction and minimal rebound." In The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains-An Integrated Continental Record at the End of the Cretaceous. Hartman, James H., Johnson, Kirk R., and Nichols, DonaldJ, editors. 297–327. Geological Society of America. In Geological Society of America Special Papers, 361.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2001. "The rise and diversification of insects." In Palaeobiology II. Briggs, D. E. G. and Crowther, P. R., editors. 82–88. Oxford: Blackwell Science.
  • Johnson, Kirk R., Nichols, Donald K., Labandeira, Conrad C., and Pearson, Dean. 2000. "Devastation of Terrestrial Ecosystems at the K-T Boundary in North America: The First Calibrated Record of Plant and Animal Response to the Chixulub Impact." In Catastrophic Events & Mass Extinctions: Impacts and Beyond (Vienna, July 9-12). 85–86. Houston, Texas: Lunar and Planetary Institute. In Lunar and Planetary Institute Contribution, no. 1053.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 2000. "The paleobiology of pollination and its precursors." In Phanerozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems. Gastaldo, Robert A. and DiMichele, William A., editors. 233–269. 6 in Paleontological Society Papers.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 1999. "Myriapods." In Encyclopedia of Paleontology. Singer, R., editor. 767–775. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 1999. "Insects and other hexapods." In Encyclopedia of Paleontology. Singer, R., editor. 603–624. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 1998. "The role of insects in Late Jurassic to Middle Cretaceous ecosystems." In Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. Lucas, Spencer G., Kirkland, J. I., and Estep, J. W., editors. 105–124. 14
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 1996. "Insects." In McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology 1996. 155–158. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. 1995. "Fossil insects." In McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology for 1996. Parker, S. P., editor. 255–258. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Beall, B. S. and Labandeira, Conrad C. 1990. "Patterns of evolution of chelicerates and tracheates." In Arthropods: Notes for a Short Course. Mikulic, Donald, editor. 257–284. In Short Courses in Paleontology, 3.
  • Labandeira, Conrad C. and Beall, B. S. 1990. "Arthropod Terrestriality." In "Arthropods: Notes for a Short Course". Mikulic, D., editor. 214–256. 3 in Short Courses in Paleontology.
Abstract
Web Page / Electronic Publication
Conference Proceedings
  • Labandeira, Conrad C., Dunne, Jennifer A., and Williams, Richard J. 2011. "The Messel food web." from The World at the Time of Messel. Proceedings of the 22nd International Senckenberg Conference. 95–97. (Frankfurt am Main)
Book Review
Book
  • Labandeira, Conrad C., Wilf, Peter, Johnson, Kirk R., and Marsh, F. 2007. Guide to Insect (and Other) Damage Types on Compressed Plant Fossils (version 3.0). Smithsonian Institution.
  • Damuth, J., Behrensmeyer, Anna K., DiMichele, William A., Labandeira, Conrad C., Potts, Richard, and Wing, Scott L. 1997. ETE Database Manual. Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Consortium. Washington, D.C..