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Scientists have discover that an " foreign plant " first found near a Utah ghost town 55 age ago does n’t appear to be related to any presently living fellowship or genus .
Paleontologists first found fossilized leaf specimen of the plant in 1969 and advert itOthniophyton elongatum , which translates to " alien plant . " At the clock time , they believe the extinct species could be related to ginseng .
TheOthniophyton elongatumfossil.
A more recent analysis , however , has challenge that possibility . Steven Manchester , curator of palaeobotany at the Florida Museum of Natural History and Utah fossil expert , came across an unnamed plant fossil while visit the University of California , Berkeley paleobotany collection . This works fogey was well preserved , and had come from the same domain as the alien plant leaves .
Manchester ’s enquiry squad analyzed the fossil and concluded they were from the same plant specie , according to their study write Nov. 9 in the journalAnnals of Botany .
Both fogey specimen were excavate from the Green River Formation in easterly Utah , near the former township of Rainbow . Around 47 million geezerhood ago , when the industrial plant lived , the region was a Brobdingnagian lake ecosystem near active vent . Lake deposit and volcanic ash slack decomposition in Pisces , reptile , doll and plant remain , enabling some to be extremely well preserved .
A reconstruction ofOthniophyton elongatum.
associate : Where did the first seeds come from ?
The researchers psychoanalyze both fossil ' physical features , and searched for endure plant life crime syndicate that could be similar . Unlike the 1969 find , the specimen at UC Berkeley had leaf , flowers and fruit seize , which looked very different from those of plants related to Panax ginseng . In fact , the researchers could n’t fit the fossils to any of the over 400 families of flowering industrial plant living today , and extinct families .
When scientist studied the original fossils in 1969 , they were working only with leave , not with flowers , fruits or branches ; based on the placement of the folio ' vein patterns , they theorized the leafage structure could be similar to that of flora in the ginseng family . With the detail leave by the raw fogy , the researchers had a better flick of what the flora would have looked like and discounted the ginseng connection , but still could n’t pinpoint the plant ’s folk .
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A few years later , the Florida Museum of Natural History had access to new microscopy and artificial intelligence engineering that enabled even more detailed showing of the plant fossil . Micro - impressions of small , develop seed were seeable in the fossil ’s fruits . The research team could also see stamens — flowers ' virile reproductive organs — which in most plant species detach after fecundation .
" Usually , stamens will return away as the fruit develops . And this thing seems strange in that it ’s retaining the stamens at the time it has matured fruits with seeds ready to disperse . We have n’t seen that in anything advanced , " Manchester said in astatement . equate these trait to extinct families did n’t lead in any compeer either , but this is n’t the only mintage from the Green River Formation that has mix up scientists . This part has previously create other plant dodo , likeBonanzacarpumfruitandPalibinialeaves , that have surprise scientist and ultimately led to the find of extinct groups .
