Data from: Highly resolved early Eocene food webs show development of modern trophic structure after the end-Cretaceous extinction

Generalities of food web structure have been identified for extant
ecosystems. However, the trophic organization of ancient ecosystems is
unresolved, as prior studies of fossil webs have been limited by
low-resolution, high-uncertainty data. We compiled highly resolved,
well-documented feeding interaction data for 700 taxa from the 48
million-year-old latest early Eocene Messel Shale, which contains a
species assemblage that developed after an interval of protracted
environmental and biotal change during and following the end-Cretaceous
extinction. We compared the network structure of Messel lake and forest
food webs to extant webs using analyses that account for scale dependence
of structure with diversity and complexity. The Messel lake web, with 94
taxa, displays unambiguous similarities in structure to extant webs. While
the Messel forest web, with 630 taxa, displays differences compared to
extant webs, they appear to result from high diversity and resolution of
insect–plant interactions, rather than substantive differences in
structure. The evidence presented here suggests that modern trophic
organization developed along with the modern Messel biota during an 18 Myr
interval of dramatic post-extinction change. Our study also has
methodological implications, as the Messel forest web analysis highlights
limitations of current food web data and models.