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Abstract Detail



Mesozoic and Cenozoic plant evolution and biotic change: A symposium in honor of Ruth Stockey

Nishida, Harufumi [1].

From Hokkaido to Patagonia, hunting plant remains in calcite nodules.

Calcite nodules formed in shallow marine depositional environments not deposited within coal beds often contain well-preserved bodies of terrestrial plants. When associated with a marine biota they can be correlated stratigraphically to obtain relative ages. The plants are preserved either as large organs like a trunk or a conifer cone, or as fragmentary debris including even fragile bodies of a moss or epiphytic filmy fern. Usually, dispersed palynomorphs can also be recovered. The calcite nodules can also preserve other types of terrestrial organisms that coexisted with plants, such as fungi and insects. The first comprehensive paleobotanical study on calcite nodules (not including coal balls) might be Stopes and Fujii (1910) on Cretaceous nodules from the Yezo Group of Hokkaido, Japan. Ruth A. Stockey has been the most important contributor from outside Japan in a series of post-Stopes works on the Hokkaido material ever since her first visit to Hokkaido in 1985. To date, more than 130 taxa chronologically extending from Albian to Maastrichtian have been described from the Yezo Group (Nishida 1991, 2005). Despite the wide biological significance of calcite nodules, relatively few works have been published worldwide. A series of works on Jurassic-Cretaceous nodules from the Vancouver Island area by Stockey, Rothwell and colleagues are good examples that demonstrate fruitful results comparable to those of the Hokkaido material. In the course of ongoing collaborations in southern Chile between Chilean and Japanese scientists since the 1970’s, calcite nodules were first confirmed in the Paleogene Chorrillo Chico Formation in Magallanes Region in 2003. They contain a fungal ascocarp, a bryophyte axis, a filmy fern rhizome, sporangia of several fern families, wood, and seed-plant reproductive organs (Nishida et al. 2006). Further excavations in Patagonia and other localities in southern Chile resulted in discoveries of Maastrichtian to Eocene nodules from several sites latitudinally extending from 36-53 degrees south. Efforts to find calcite nodules in the Antarctic Peninsula began in 2010 as joint research program supported by INACH (Instituto Antartico de Chile) and Japanese MEXT Grant. Besides summarizing studies on calcite nodules from Hokkaido and Patagonia I am going to introduce two interesting gymnosperm seed-bearing organs; a conifer cone from the Maastrichtian of Cocholgue (36⁰ S) and a possible seed-fern from the Paleogene of Isla Riesco (53⁰ S).


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Related Links:
Laboratory of Plant Phylogeny and Evolution, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Chuo University


1 - Fac Of Sci & Eng/Chuo Univ, 1-13-27 Kasuga, Bunkyo, Tokyo, N/A, 112-8551, Japan

Keywords:
calcite nodule
paleobotany
Hokkaido
Patagonia
permineralized
plant anatomy
phytogeography.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY14
Location: Salon 5/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2015
Time: 8:15 AM
Number: SY14002
Abstract ID:826
Candidate for Awards:None


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