Beetle diversification increased due to the coevolutionary relationship between beetles and seed plants: gymnosperms and angiosperms. In the Permian period, 50 million after the foundation of the Coleoptera order, beetle were only sparophages, which only feed off decaying organic matter. As the Permian period transition to the Trissic period, a mutation rose in the beetle population, which coincided with the rise of gymnosperms in the Trissic period. Over millions of years, beetles had a variation in their population that allowed certain beetles to consume plant as a viable food source. The herbaceous beetle character displacement allow herbaceous beetles, which had a completely different source of nourishment from sparophages beetles, too
