Leaf preservation in <i>Eucalyptus</i> woodland as a model for sclerophyll fossil floras

Retallack, Gregory J.

doi:10.1080/03115518.2018.1457180

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Very few other plant fragments with calamitalean axes and fern foliage have been found in the charcoal-bearing bed in addition to the frequently appearing peltasperm leaves, suggesting that peltasperm leaves were probably the predominant fuel source for combustion. Therefore, the charcoalified plant remains found in the Kayitou Formation may have been derived from a low-diversity sclerophyllous vegetation forming a savanna-or prairie-like ecosystem; these are among the most fire-prone ecosystems today (Bond and Keeley, 2005;Retallack, 2018). Considering their completeness and exquisite anatomical detail, the charcoalified peltasperm leaves studied here may have been transported locally by wind, or more probably by low-energy water transport through overland flow.…”

Section: Paleoecological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Latest Permian Peltasperm Plant From Southwest China and Its Paleoenvironmental Implications

Feng

Wei

et al. 2020

Front. Earth Sci.

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A monospecific flora containing a peltasperm species, Germaropteris martinsii, is discovered from the uppermost Permian Kayitou Formation of Southwest China. The epidermal characteristics of G. martinsii from the South China Block are described for the first time on the basis of charcoalified specimens. The plant is characterized by small, leathery foliage with prominent papillate epidermal cells, and slightly sunken stomata. The stomatal apertures are covered by the long papillae of the surrounding subsidiary cells. The specific epidermal traits suggest that G. martinsii is a highly environmentally tolerant taxon that probably formed monospecific communities during the dramatic degradation of the peat-forming rainforest ecosystems. The frequent appearance of charcoalified leaves in the flora demonstrates that intense wildfires were prevalent at the time. The appearance and reflectance value (1.33%) of these charcoalified leaves reveal that they were formed at temperatures of 450-500°C during brief surface fires. Our study indicates that the terrestrial ecosystems may have been frequently subjected to desiccation and was vulnerable to the spread of fires as a result of the end-Permian biotic crisis in the tropics of the eastern Tethys region.

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Section: Paleoecological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Latest Permian Peltasperm Plant From Southwest China and Its Paleoenvironmental Implications

Feng

Wei

et al. 2020

Front. Earth Sci.

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“…Our results are difficult to compare to these modern observations, as the most abundant leaf types in a fossil assemblage may not represent the most abundant species of the past vegetation due to taphonomic biases. For instance, the differential preservation of tougher leaves over more delicate ones, which decompose more readily, could skew our understanding of past plant diversity and insect‐plant interactions (e.g., Retallack, 2019 ). Moreover, modern studies suggest that in a given forest ecosystem, riparian habitats tend to be less rich in galling as compared to well‐drained habitats (e.g., Cuevas‐Reyes et al., 2004 ; Fernandes & Price, 1992 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rich specialized insect damage on Pliocene leaves from the Mahuadanr Valley (India) growing under a warm climate with weak seasonality

Adroit,

Hazra,

Denk

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Plant‐insect interactions play a crucial role in shaping terrestrial ecosystems, influencing abundance and distribution of plant species. In the present study, we investigated leaf‐mining patterns on fossil leaves from Pliocene strata of the Mahuadanr Valley, Jharkhand, eastern India, deposited under a seasonal tropical climate, and reported complex interactions between plants and insects. We identified 11 distinct mining morphotypes. These morphotypes were mainly found on Dipterocarpaceae, Fabaceae, Lauraceae, and Moraceae; similar mining traces were also observed in the contemporary vegetation surrounding the fossil site. Although mining richness was relatively high, only 2.6% of all leaves in the fossil assemblage were mined. We compared mining richness and abundance values with previously reported values for galling. While richness was slightly lower for galling, almost 50% of all fossil leaves were galled. A literature survey on mining and galling patterns in modern vegetation suggests that there is no global explanation for richness of mining or gall‐inducing insects. Thus, low nutrient availability in the ancient forest, dominance of semideciduous leaves with hard texture, and different habitats in the same forest ecosystem, such as well‐drained forests and riparian stands, may all have favored different types of specialized plant–insect interactions.

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“…The leaves (or leaf segments) of most plants are diminutive, and those of the gymnosperms typically bear thick cuticles and/or have strong stomatal protection suggestive of adaptation to inhibition of transpirational water loss. Elements of this fossil flora have been described and illustrated by Townrow (1956), Townrow (1960), Townrow (1966), Townrow (1967a), Townrow (1967b), Retallack (1977), Retallack (1980), Retallack (2002), and White (1981) and interpreted to reflect the establishment of a sclerophyllous vegetation tolerant to seasonal water deficiency (Retallack 2018). A selection of key taxa is illustrated here (Figure 14) to highlight the dominant woody and herbaceous components of the paleoflora.…”

Section: Macroflora Of the Permian-triassic Transitionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Age and Paleoenvironmental Significance of the Frazer Beach Member—A New Lithostratigraphic Unit Overlying the End-Permian Extinction Horizon in the Sydney Basin, Australia

McLoughlin

Nicoll²,

Crowley

et al. 2021

Front. Earth Sci.

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The newly defined Frazer Beach Member of the Moon Island Beach Formation is identified widely across the Sydney Basin in both outcrop and exploration wells. This thin unit was deposited immediately after extinction of the Glossopteris flora (defining the terrestrial end-Permian extinction event). The unit rests conformably on the uppermost Permian coal seam in most places. A distinctive granule-microbreccia bed is locally represented at the base of the member. The unit otherwise consists of dark gray to black siltstone, shale, mudstone and, locally, thin lenses of fine-grained sandstone and tuff. The member represents the topmost unit of the Newcastle Coal Measures and is overlain gradationally by the Dooralong Shale or with a scoured (disconformable) contact by coarse-grained sandstones to conglomerates of the Coal Cliff Sandstone, Munmorah Conglomerate and laterally equivalent units. The member is characterized by a palynological “dead zone” represented by a high proportion of degraded wood fragments, charcoal, amorphous organic matter and fungal spores. Abundant freshwater algal remains and the initial stages of a terrestrial vascular plant recovery flora are represented by low-diversity spore-pollen suites in the upper part of the unit in some areas. These assemblages are referable to the Playfordiaspora crenulata Palynozone interpreted as latest Permian in age on the basis of high precision Chemical Abrasion Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (CA-IDTIMS) dating of thin volcanic ash beds within and stratigraphically bracketing the unit. Plant macrofossils recovered from the upper Frazer Beach Member and immediately succeeding strata are dominated by Lepidopteris (Peltaspermaceae) and Voltziopsis (Voltziales) with subsidiary pleuromeian lycopsids, sphenophytes, and ferns. Sparse vertebrate and invertebrate ichnofossils are also represented in the Frazer Beach Member or in beds immediately overlying this unit. The Frazer Beach Member is correlative, in part, with a thin interval of organic-rich mudrocks, commonly known as the “marker mudstone” capping the Permian succession further to the north in the Bowen, Galilee and Cooper basins. The broad geographic distribution of this generally <5-m-thick mudrock unit highlights the development in eastern Gondwana of extensive, short-lived, shallow lacustrine systems with impoverished biotas in alluvial plain settings in the immediate aftermath of the end-Permian biotic crisis.

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Leaf preservation in Eucalyptus woodland as a model for sclerophyll fossil floras

Cited by 4 publications

References 79 publications

Latest Permian Peltasperm Plant From Southwest China and Its Paleoenvironmental Implications

Latest Permian Peltasperm Plant From Southwest China and Its Paleoenvironmental Implications

Rich specialized insect damage on Pliocene leaves from the Mahuadanr Valley (India) growing under a warm climate with weak seasonality

Age and Paleoenvironmental Significance of the Frazer Beach Member—A New Lithostratigraphic Unit Overlying the End-Permian Extinction Horizon in the Sydney Basin, Australia

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