Article
Plant Sciences
Theodore P. Matel, Maria A. Gandolfo, Elizabeth J. Hermsen, Peter Wilf
Summary: Two distinct types of fossil infructescences from the early Eocene Laguna del Hunco flora in Patagonia, Argentina, have been found to be affiliated with the family Cunoniaceae. The study reveals the evolutionary and biogeographical significance of these fossils and introduces two new fossil genera, Racemofructus and Cunoniocarpa, with affinities to tribes Cunonieae and Caldcluvieae respectively. These fossils, alongside other evidence from southern South America and Antarctica, suggest that Cunoniaceae were diversified and widely distributed in the southern hemisphere by the early Eocene period.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Colton Poore, Nathan A. Jud, Maria A. Gandolfo
Summary: Phytocreneae is a tribe of climbing plants widely distributed in tropical regions. The fossil record of this tribe spans the Cenozoic era, with occurrences on all continents except Antarctica. This study presents a new silicified endocarp fossil from the early Paleocene period, providing evidence of Phytocreneae's presence in South America and its survival during the end-Cretaceous extinction event. Analysis of the fossil's internal structure and comparison with other species contribute to understanding the biogeographic history of this tribe. Further research should focus on bridging the gaps in the Gondwanan record to examine the relationship between Australasian and American lineages.
REVIEW OF PALAEOBOTANY AND PALYNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Y. Kasai, C. Leipe, M. Saito, H. Kitagawa, S. Lauterbach, A. Brauer, P. E. Tarasov, T. Goslar, F. Arai, S. Sakuma
Summary: The method utilizes traveling vortices generated by on-demand microjet flows to achieve high-throughput sorting of large particles, successfully purifying ancient pollen from lake sediments and obtaining accurate radiocarbon dates, providing a new tool for building paleoenvironmental records.
Article
Plant Sciences
Lizette Liliana Rodriguez-Verastegui, Candy Yuriria Ramirez-Zavaleta, Maria Fernanda Capilla-Hernandez, Josefat Gregorio-Jorge
Summary: Trees and herbs that produce fruits are important agricultural food commodities, but their yield is often affected by viruses. In this work, the authors compiled a comprehensive list of known edible fruits and identified plant viruses that infect commercially important fruit-producing trees and herbs. The study provides an overall understanding of virus families and host range, as well as plant-virus interactions and methods for disease detection. The article also presents promising strategies for controlling viral diseases in the field.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Hanzhang Song, Luliang Huang, Helanlin Xiang, Cheng Quan, Jianhua Jin
Summary: This study reports the discovery of Engelhardia fossil winged fruits with detailed anatomical structures from the Miocene Erzitang Formation of Guangxi, South China, suggesting that Engelhardia had reached its modern distribution during the Miocene. The unique anatomical and morphological features of the new fossils clearly distinguish them from other fossil genera and show unambiguously their attribution to the genus Engelhardia.
Article
Plant Sciences
Gonzalo Torres, Liliana Lupo, Claudio Perez
Summary: This paper aims to reconstruct seasonal humid conditions of the past 2,000 years in NW Argentina based on fossil pollen records. The prevalence of certain types of pollen provides information about soil moisture and rainfall variability, allowing for the characterization of summer and winter conditions. The analysis of the pollen records also enables the reconstruction of the frequency of mountain-valley breezes and winter precipitation.
VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Henrique Mallmann Buneker, Tamara Pastori, Pedro Schwambach de Almeida, Jorge Ernesto de Araujo Mariath
Summary: We propose the re-establishment of Dyckia tomentosa, after rediscovering its populations, the synonymization of Dyckia polyclada, and Dyckia magnifica as a new species from southern Brazil that is morphologically related to D. tomentosa. Descriptions of external morphology, leaf anatomy and pollen morphology, and comments on species distributions and habitats are provided. The informal species complex in which D. magnifica and D. tomentosa are placed is morphologically re-circumscribed and proposed here as the Dyckia selloa complex.
Article
Plant Sciences
Elena E. Severova, Paula J. Rudall, Terry D. Macfarlane, Elena D. Krasnova, Dmitry D. Sokoloff
Summary: In this study, we found that some aquatic angiosperms have pollen apertures, which may represent an evolutionary adaptation to cope with unstable salinity in aquatic environments.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Shenglan Xu, Hanzhang Song, Helanlin Xiang, Weiqiu Liu, Cheng Quan, Jianhua Jin
Summary: Fruit fossil species of Ceratophyllum have been discovered in South China, providing evidence for their distribution in the late Eocene and wide expansion in subtropical China during the Miocene.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Wenning Jiang, Lulu Han, Ting Xu, Zhenhua Chao, Ziyu Liu, Chong Zhang, Lingyun Jia
Summary: Nature-based fossil-like pollen grains (F-PGs) with UV-responsive optical properties were fabricated through concentrated H2SO4 treatment, showing incomplete carbonization and UV-active alkyl aliphatic groups which induce photochromic and fluorogenic functionalities under UV irradiation. The F-PGs were used to construct high photochromic contrast films serving as UV sensors and for flexible photo-reduction of metal ions to nanoparticles after UV exposure. The innovative F-PGs pave the way for utilizing natural pollen in UV-responsive applications and converting renewable biomass into functional materials.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES A-PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS
(2021)
Article
Horticulture
Allan Waniale, Settumba B. Mukasa, Arthur K. Tugume, Jerome Kubiriba, Wilberforce K. Tushemereirwe, Robooni Tumuhimbise
Summary: This study investigated the pollen tube growth, position of fertilized ovule development, and seed set in banana genotypes. The results showed that pollen tubes can reach different parts of the ovary, fertilized ovule development occurs along the entire length of the fruit but is biased towards the distal end in some genotypes, and there are differences in ovule fertilization rates between hands.
Article
Geography, Physical
Zetian Liu, Zhiyong Zhang, Dongmei Cheng, Zhongxin Duan, Jian Ni
Summary: In this paper, the authors investigate the impact of the Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) on pollen dispersal patterns in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) region. They construct a wind connectivity diagram and extract latent spatial variables to quantify the directional spatial effect of the ASM. Their results show that the directional processes induced by the monsoon significantly explain the variation of pollen assemblages on the TP, which has implications for studying monsoon evolution and using pollen as a proxy. These findings can also be applied to paleomonsoon simulations using fossil pollen records.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Daniele Silvestro, Christine D. Bacon, Wenna Ding, Qiuyue Zhang, Philip C. J. Donoghue, Alexandre Antonelli, Yaowu Xing
Summary: The origin of angiosperms remains controversial, with some families originating in the Jurassic and supporting rapid diversification in the Cretaceous, as indicated by both molecular and fossil record analyses.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Mycology
N. B. Nunez Otano, M. Bianchinotti, I. C. Romero, E. Perez Pincheira, R. K. Saxena, M. C. N. Saparrat
Summary: The establishment of affinities between fossil and extant fungal spores based on morphological traits is challenging, requiring the usage of mycological terms. In this study, we transferred five species of Frasnacritetrus to Tetraploa due to their shared morphological traits. Additionally, we discussed the synthesis of dark pigments in extant Tetraploa spores and their contribution to the preservation of these diaspores in the fossil record. Our findings shed light on the role of melanins in preserving fungal spores and other remains, providing insights into burial histories, thermal maturation effects, fungal lineage evolution, and the use of fungal melanins as biomarkers for paleoecological purposes.
Article
Geography, Physical
Keitaro Yamada, Takayuki Omori, Ikuko Kitaba, Tatsuo Hori, Takeshi Nakagawa
Summary: Fossil pollen grains have long been considered ideal materials for radiocarbon dating, but extracting small fossil grains with sufficient purity from various sediments has proven challenging. A new method has been developed using cell sorter technology, allowing for routine extraction and reliable radiocarbon dating of fossil pollen grains, even from organic-rich sediments. The improved physicochemical pre-treatment and new sorting criteria have enabled efficient separation of small fossil pollen grains from impurities, with results showing good agreement with terrestrial leaf fossils in age determination.
QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS
(2021)
