Understanding the paleoenvironment and phytogeographical history of the Tibetan Plateau,China relies on discovering new plant fossils.The Qaidam Basin has long been regarded as an ideal‘field laboratory’to investiga...Understanding the paleoenvironment and phytogeographical history of the Tibetan Plateau,China relies on discovering new plant fossils.The Qaidam Basin has long been regarded as an ideal‘field laboratory’to investigate the paleoclimate and paleobiological evolution of the northern Tibetan Plateau.However,fossil angiosperms from the Qaidam Basin are rare,and our knowledge of its paleovegetation is poor.Here,we report fossil leaves and fruits of Betulaceae found from the Oligocene Shangganchaigou Formation of northwestern Qaidam Basin(Huatugou area).Comparative morphological analysis led us to assign the fruits to the Betula subgenus Betula and the leaves to Carpinus grandis.These findings,together with other reported fossil plants from the same locality,reveal a close floristic linkage between the Qaidam Basin and Europe during the Oligocene.The northern pathway of this floristic exchange may have crossed through the Qaidam Basin during the late Paleogene.This floristic linkage may have been facilitated by the continuous narrowing of the Turgai Strait and stronger westerlies,which transported moisture and provided favorable climatic conditions.Indeed,fossil plants collected from the Qaidam Basin suggest that during the Oligocene this region had warm and humid deciduous broad-leaf forest,which differs from the region’s modern vegetation and indicates that the Qaidam Basin may have been a suitable region for these plants to flourish and spread during the Oligocene.展开更多
The International Fossil Plant Names Index(IFPNI,2014-onwards)not only serves as an online gateway to the fossil plant name registry for the global scientific community,but also serves as a comprehensive and dynamic a...The International Fossil Plant Names Index(IFPNI,2014-onwards)not only serves as an online gateway to the fossil plant name registry for the global scientific community,but also serves as a comprehensive and dynamic archive of fossil plants(Doweld,2016,2022).Since its establishment in 2014,the IFPNI has accumulated more than 80,000 entries of fossil plant names,along with information on over 10,000 documents and over 6000 paleobotanists,all supported by exhaustive data,demonstrating the scope of the IFPNI's work(IFPNI,2014-onwards).展开更多
The Eastern Himalayas are renowned for their high plant diversity.To understand how this modern botanical richness formed,it is critical to investigate past plant biodiversity preserved as fossils throughout the easte...The Eastern Himalayas are renowned for their high plant diversity.To understand how this modern botanical richness formed,it is critical to investigate past plant biodiversity preserved as fossils throughout the eastern Himalayan Siwalik succession(middle Miocene-early Pleistocene).Here,we present a summary of plant diversity records that document Neogene floristic and climate changes.We do this by compiling published records of megafossil plant remains,because these offer better spatial and temporal resolution than do palynological records.Analyses of the Siwalik floral assemblages based on the distribution of the nearest living relative taxa suggest that a tropical wet evergreen forest was growing in a warm humid monsoonal climate at the deposition time.This qualitative interpretation is also corroborated by published CLAMP(Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program) analyses.Here,we also reconstruct the climate by applying a new common proxy WorldClim2 calibration.This allows the detection of subtle climate differences between floral assemblages free of artefacts introduced by using different methodologies and climate calibrations.An analysis of the Siwalik floras indicates that there was a gradual change in floral composition.The lower Siwalik assemblages provide evidence of a predominance of evergreen elements.An increase in deciduous elements in the floral composition is noticed towards the close of the middle Siwalik and the beginning of the upper Siwalik formation.This change reflects a climatic difference between Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene times.This review helps us to understand under what paleoenvironmental conditions plant diversity occurred and evolved in the eastern Himalayas throughout the Cenozoic.展开更多
In recent years,two species of fossil plants,i.e.Ctenozamites sarrani Zeiller and Equisetites arenaceus(Jaeger)Bronn,have been found for the first time in the Xiaowa Formation in Guanling County,Guizhou.They occur tog...In recent years,two species of fossil plants,i.e.Ctenozamites sarrani Zeiller and Equisetites arenaceus(Jaeger)Bronn,have been found for the first time in the Xiaowa Formation in Guanling County,Guizhou.They occur together with marine reptiles,crinoids,ammonites,bivalves,conodonts,fishes,brachiopods etc.The Xiaowa Formation is composed of a sequence of marine deposits,in which fossil plants may have been carried to the bay from the land not far from the coast by rivers and deposited there.This finding not only adds a new element to the Guanling biota,but also provides further evidence for determining this biota to be of Carnian age.展开更多
基金the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2022M723151)the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition Research Program (No. 2019QZKK0704)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42172005, 41272026, 41972008, 31870200)the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000)
文摘Understanding the paleoenvironment and phytogeographical history of the Tibetan Plateau,China relies on discovering new plant fossils.The Qaidam Basin has long been regarded as an ideal‘field laboratory’to investigate the paleoclimate and paleobiological evolution of the northern Tibetan Plateau.However,fossil angiosperms from the Qaidam Basin are rare,and our knowledge of its paleovegetation is poor.Here,we report fossil leaves and fruits of Betulaceae found from the Oligocene Shangganchaigou Formation of northwestern Qaidam Basin(Huatugou area).Comparative morphological analysis led us to assign the fruits to the Betula subgenus Betula and the leaves to Carpinus grandis.These findings,together with other reported fossil plants from the same locality,reveal a close floristic linkage between the Qaidam Basin and Europe during the Oligocene.The northern pathway of this floristic exchange may have crossed through the Qaidam Basin during the late Paleogene.This floristic linkage may have been facilitated by the continuous narrowing of the Turgai Strait and stronger westerlies,which transported moisture and provided favorable climatic conditions.Indeed,fossil plants collected from the Qaidam Basin suggest that during the Oligocene this region had warm and humid deciduous broad-leaf forest,which differs from the region’s modern vegetation and indicates that the Qaidam Basin may have been a suitable region for these plants to flourish and spread during the Oligocene.
文摘The International Fossil Plant Names Index(IFPNI,2014-onwards)not only serves as an online gateway to the fossil plant name registry for the global scientific community,but also serves as a comprehensive and dynamic archive of fossil plants(Doweld,2016,2022).Since its establishment in 2014,the IFPNI has accumulated more than 80,000 entries of fossil plant names,along with information on over 10,000 documents and over 6000 paleobotanists,all supported by exhaustive data,demonstrating the scope of the IFPNI's work(IFPNI,2014-onwards).
基金RAS and TEVS were supported by NERC/NSFC BETR Project NE/P013805/1.
文摘The Eastern Himalayas are renowned for their high plant diversity.To understand how this modern botanical richness formed,it is critical to investigate past plant biodiversity preserved as fossils throughout the eastern Himalayan Siwalik succession(middle Miocene-early Pleistocene).Here,we present a summary of plant diversity records that document Neogene floristic and climate changes.We do this by compiling published records of megafossil plant remains,because these offer better spatial and temporal resolution than do palynological records.Analyses of the Siwalik floral assemblages based on the distribution of the nearest living relative taxa suggest that a tropical wet evergreen forest was growing in a warm humid monsoonal climate at the deposition time.This qualitative interpretation is also corroborated by published CLAMP(Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program) analyses.Here,we also reconstruct the climate by applying a new common proxy WorldClim2 calibration.This allows the detection of subtle climate differences between floral assemblages free of artefacts introduced by using different methodologies and climate calibrations.An analysis of the Siwalik floras indicates that there was a gradual change in floral composition.The lower Siwalik assemblages provide evidence of a predominance of evergreen elements.An increase in deciduous elements in the floral composition is noticed towards the close of the middle Siwalik and the beginning of the upper Siwalik formation.This change reflects a climatic difference between Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene times.This review helps us to understand under what paleoenvironmental conditions plant diversity occurred and evolved in the eastern Himalayas throughout the Cenozoic.
文摘In recent years,two species of fossil plants,i.e.Ctenozamites sarrani Zeiller and Equisetites arenaceus(Jaeger)Bronn,have been found for the first time in the Xiaowa Formation in Guanling County,Guizhou.They occur together with marine reptiles,crinoids,ammonites,bivalves,conodonts,fishes,brachiopods etc.The Xiaowa Formation is composed of a sequence of marine deposits,in which fossil plants may have been carried to the bay from the land not far from the coast by rivers and deposited there.This finding not only adds a new element to the Guanling biota,but also provides further evidence for determining this biota to be of Carnian age.
