Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 15:42:49 EDT From: CALIFCARN@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1501$foo@default> Subject: Re: Fossil Site
Howdy, Peter here at California Carnivores.
The article I mentioned about the fossilized jungle site appeared in the
New York Times on December 21, 1999. I'll quote a few lines from it:
"Ninety million years ago, on what is now an empty lot (near Newark, New
Jersey), a flower-filled tropical forest stood in flames, its many blossoms
burning and smoldering away not into ashy oblivion, but into paleontological
perpetuity...
...the fires that periodically swept these woods so long ago preserved
its blooms as perfect charcoal fossils, creating the most bountiful and
exquisitely preserved cache of ancient flowers in the
world....Biologists...have already uncovered more than 200 species of fossil
flowers at the site, including ancient relatives of carnations, catuses,
teas, azaleas, water lilies, oaks, pitcher plants and magnolias. These
charcoal flowers, preserved in breathaking three-dimensional detail right
down to the level of the individual cell, are revealing not only how ancient
relatives of modern plants looked but also, in some cases, how they lived
when the dinosaurs still roamed New Jersey...Researchers say the findings are
turning botanical lore on its head by revealing that the great
diversification of flowering plants, which are the most species-rich and
important group of plants on Earth, took place at least 90 million years ago,
some 30 million years earlier than previously suspected..."
The article goes on to say that insect life was much more complicated and
involved with plant evolution than previously suspected. One scientist, Wm.
L. Crepet, a paleobiologist at Cornell University said that "finding one
complete fossil flower was the equivalent of finding a new dinosaur intact"
and that "there were likely to be billions of charcoal fossil flowers at the
site, representing a diversity of species comparable to a modern tropical
rain forest."
Anyway, it's a fascinating article. Maybe someone more skilled at
computers can scan it or something and reproduce it in it's entirety for all
to read. I'd really like to know what "ancestor" of which "pitcher plants"
was found. We can assume Sarracenia, but these things are often filled with
surprises.
Seeya. Peter
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:35:08 PST