The evolutionary histories of the most important plants in our lives, the flowering plants or angiosperms, are relatively unknown. Today, angiosperms are almost all pollinated by animals, the most important being the insects. As important to angiosperms as insects are, the plants are in turn valuable to the pollinator.
Insects derive food, shelter, and breeding places from the plants they visit.
Adaptations made by both angiosperms and insects to exploit the offering of the other have lead to coevolution. Analyzing the way insects and plants interact today can offer only a tiny picture into the evolution of angiosperms. Examining fossils give us a better idea of the pollination mechanisms already in place in the angiosperms during their evolution 3,2 . Fossil evidence of non-angiospermous plants suggests that pollination by insects was in place well before the rising of the angiosperms 3 . Early insects were well adapted for consumption of plant reproductive parts.