The Carnian Aasvoëlberg 411 (Aas411) site of the Molteno Formation in South Africa provides exceptional data for understanding how plants, their arthropod herbivores and interactions responded to the P-Tr ecological crisis approximately 18 million years earlier. Our study lists six consequences stemming from the P-Tr event. First, Aas411 was one of the most herbivorized of Molteno's 106 sites, consisting of 20,358 plant specimens represented by 111 plant form-taxa that includes 14 whole-plant taxa (WPT); the insect damage consists of 11 functional feeding groups (FFGs), 44 damage types (DTs) and 1127 herbivorized specimens for an herbivory value of 5.54%. Second, the seven most herbivorized hosts, in decreasing importance, were the conifer Heidiphyllum elongatum; corystosperm Dicroidium crassinervis; ginkgophyte Sphenobaiera schenckii, peltasperms Lepidopteris stormbergensis and L. africana and horsetail Zonulamites viridensis. Third, generalized feeding damage and 11 host-specialized associations were present that targeted 39 of 111 plant taxa. Fourth, the Heidiphyllum elongatum WPT was most herbivorized, harboring an extensive herbivore component community containing 81.8% of FFGs, 63.6% of DT categories, 40.9% of DT occurrences, and 36.4% of specialized interactions at the site. Fifth, eriophyioid gall DT70 was host-specialized on Dicroidium crassinervis, where it constitutes 70.1% of all Molteno DT70 occurrences and revealing a distinctive developmental ontogeny. Sixth, herbivory levels significantly surpassed those of the Late Permian.
