Paleontologists have discovered an exceptionally well-preserved monodominant forest of the wood fossil-species Wataria parvipora at a Miocene locality in Japan.
“Complete plant fossils are seldom found as a single piece, as wood, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, or pollen detach easily from plants,” said Hokkaido University’s Professor Toshihiro Yamada and colleagues.
“This results in leaves and trunks having separate scientific names.”
“Putting together the different parts to reveal the complete plant is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.”
“Connecting these dots and reconstructing plants is important to establish their taxonomic identity.”
The paleontologists discovered an exceptional Miocene fossil locality in Japan where a monodominant forest of the wood fossil-species Wataria parvipora flourished.
They examined 137 stumps in a 2,000-m2 area of the fossil site and identified 130 stumps as Wataria parvipora.
Notably, the forest floor was covered by a bed consisting almost exclusively of Byttneriophyllum tiliifolium leaves.
“Wataria is a wood-fossil, recognized by its distinctive growth rings, abundant parenchyma rays and lack of resin canals,” the researchers said.
“At the 2,000-m2 fossil site, these stumps accounted for 95% of the tree remains, indicating that we discovered a forest predominantly of this species.”
“Byttneriophyllum tiliifolium is a leaf-fossil species belonging to the mallow family, which includes cotton, cacao and durian,” they added.
“Fossils of this leaf were widely distributed throughout Eurasia during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs and the discovery of the Wataria fossil forest indicates that Byttneriophyllum tiliifolium are the leaves of Wataria.”
“We found that 98% of the fossil-leaves found at the site belonged to Byttneriophyllum, strongly indicating that they were shed from the parent trees.”
“We could see that the leaves were deposited paraautochthonously on the forest floor — they…
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