The fossilization process is a constant slogan of decay, compression and erosion that takes millions of years and favors the preservation of tough materials such as bones, teeth and shells. However, with a small amount of sticky tree resin and a lot of luck, delicate plants and small creatures can live for tens of millions of years. , and even pint-sized dinosaurs, anything trapped inside resin is stored in a golden time capsule.
A research team recently rediscovered a particularly surprising inclusion in amber that had been hidden in a museum collection that had gone unnoticed for 150 years. The tawny flowers, which look like they were picked from a bouquet, are the largest flowers of amber ever discovered, the team reported in a new study released Thursday. scientific reportThis flower is so well preserved that researchers have been able to identify the descendants of the flower that now live off the continent.
The stunning finds come from the region around the Baltic Sea, one of the world’s premier amber hotspots, thanks to the vast forests of resin-infiltrating conifers that once covered the region. In the late period, 38 to 34 million years ago, a sticky resinous mass oozed and dripped from one of these trees and captured a flower.
The fossilized flower is just over an inch in diameter, so it may not sound particularly big. However, it is about three times the size of most other amber-preserved flowers and nearly half the size of all other Baltic ambers. Large flowers are rarely found in amber, according to study co-author Eva-Maria Sadowski, a paleobotanist at the Leibniz Institute for the Science of Evolutionary Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum Berlin. “If you find a peculiar flower, it’s usually a very small one,” she says.
The newly reported fossils were discovered sometime in the 19th century when scientists scoured local mines and coastlines for amber.Originally named flower Stewart Kowalewski It was placed in a modern resin-filled glass case in 1872 and has since been largely forgotten. The mere existence of this flower today is remarkable, according to . [World] War,” says Poiner, who was not involved in the new study.
Sadowski says a retired colleague informed her that one of the amber specimens in the collection of Germany’s Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources contained a surprisingly large flower. Sadowski soon realized it was something special and jumped at the opportunity to re-examine her one of these historic specimens using cutting-edge technology. The flower’s fragile genitalia were so well preserved that her team was able to extract intact pollen grains in females. The grains were reminiscent of pollen from small trees and shrubs native to Asia. SimplocosToday, these evergreens are found in moist, high-altitude forests and produce yellow or white flowers.
To reflect the buried flower’s newfound identity, researchers suggested renaming it Simplokos Kovalewskimaking it the first record of antiquity Simplocos A plant preserved in Baltic amber. Based on conclusions based on modern relatives of this tree, the researchers believe it lived among sap-rich conifers in the temperate climate experienced by the Baltic region during the Eocene. Sadowski believes each new plant helps bring focus to this ancient forest. “I see each specimen as a puzzle piece to gain more knowledge about the forest as a whole,” she says.
