Upside-down in volcanic ash: crown reconstruction of the early Permian seed fern Medullosa stellata with attached foliated fronds.

ABSTRACT: Our understanding of fossil floras through geological time is mainly based on various differently preserved plant parts, often found isolated under restricted taphonomic circumstances. Preservation of whole plants is exceptionally rare in the geological record but provides the most reliable proof of ancient plants, especially those lacking a nearest living relative like the late Paleozoic pteridosperms. Among them, the medullosan seed ferns represent the largest and most essential systematic group. Medullosaleans are well known from the large Euramerican tropical swamp forests of Carboniferous age, but also from seasonally dry, clastic-soil habitats of Late Pennsylvanian-early Permian intramontane basins in central Europe. An exceptional taphonomic window that offered three-dimensional pre

SUBMITTER: Luthardt L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8953532 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature