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摘要:Fossil ferns are abundant and diverse in the Permian Cathaysian Flora of Shanxi, North China. Although plants assemblages of the Carboniferous and Permian have been extensively investigated, their palaeoecology and especially the paleoecology of ferns has not been studied in detail. Recent reinvestigation of Oligocarpia gothanii has revealed its growth habit and cloning reproduction strategy, but most previous studies lack integrated sedimentological and taphonomic data. In this study, new materials of O. gothanii have been collected from a floodplain setting in the middle Permian Lower Shihhotse Formation of southeastern Shanxi. These plant fossils were found in a lenticular claystone associated with rooting structures. They are characterized by aphlebia at the base of the penultimate rachis. Sedimentological, taphonomic and morphological analyses were conducted to understand the growth habit and ecology of the fern. The result indicates that the Oligocarpia gothanii had a prostrate, ground cover growth habit, and was dominant in pioneer floras that colonized disturbed floodplains.

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摘要:Biomolecular characteristics of fossil Liquidambar from the Miocene Shengxian Formation, Tiantai, Zhejiang province in eastern China and Miocene Clarkia sediment, Idaho, U.S.A., are obtained by means of Pyrolysis-Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry analysis (Py-GC-MS). Their modern equivalent (Liquidambar formosana) collected from Nanjing, eastern China, is also analyzed for comparison. The total ion chromatograms (TIC) of modern L. formosana leaves shows abundant pyrolysates of lignin, polysaccharide, aliphatic acid, and amino acid. However, only one polysaccharide molecule, i.e., levoglucosan, is retained in fossil Liquidambar leaves from the two Miocene sites with the Tiantai specimen possessing higher intensity. As expected, some lignin pyrolysates including benzene, phenol, guaiacol, vinylphenol and their derivatives, are detected in Miocene Tiantai L. miosinica. However, the lignin components with large molecular weight other than benzene and phenol compounds, are absent in Miocene Clarkia L. pachyphyllum. Abundant pristene and homologous series of n-alk-1-ene/n-alkane pairs with a long retention time are shown in pyrograms of both Tiantai and Clarkia fossils. Based upon our Py-GC-MS data, the molecular preservation in these Liquidambar leaf samples can be ranked as the following (from high to low quality respectively): modern sample >Tiantai sample >Clarkia sample. Vinyl phenol, an important compound, is present in modern and Tiantai Liquidambar leaves, while absent in Clarkia sample, implying that vinyl phenol may be sourced from lignin for Liquidambar leaves. Our data support the hypothesis of in situ polymerization for the origin of long-chain homologous series of n-alk-1-ene/n-alkane pairs as leaf alteration products. Our data have implications of the impact of leaf degradation toward biases for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction using stable carbon isotope of fossil plants, and suggest the importance of evaluating molecular preservation of fossil leaf tissues prior to the application of carbon isotope compositions of fossil leaves.

摘要:Situated at the easternmost area of the Late Mesozoic Jehol Biota, China, abundant fossils, including invertebrates, vertebrates and plants, were collected from the Early Cretaceous Yingzuilazi Formation of the Baishan Basin, southeastern Jilin. The faunal remains from this formation distinctly belong to the Early Cretaceous Lycoptera–Ephemeropsis–Eosestheria assemblage of the Jehol Biota. Based on the gross leaf morphology and epidermal structures, two new species and one indeterminate species of genus Solenites (Czekanowskiales), S. baishanensis sp. nov., S. gracilis sp. nov. and S. sp. are described in this paper. This is the first fossil plant of Czekanowskiales reported from this new fossil locality