A Left-Handed, Stem-Twining Plant from the Miocene Shanwang Formation of Eastern China
A Left-Handed, Stem-Twining Plant from the Miocene Shanwang Formation of Eastern China
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DOI：
10.4236/ajps.2013.45a003
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发表时间：
2013-05
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
QI Wang;Si Shen;Zhenyu Li
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
QI Wang;Si Shen;Zhenyu Li
植物的缠绕茎在现存的热带和亚热带森林中非常普遍，植物的攀援生长习性可能是对封闭、阴凉或开放、边缘环境的进化创新和生态适应。然而，攀爬植物的手性的起源仍然不清楚。在这里，我们报告了一个来自中国东部山东省山旺组的中新世（约1600万年前）大化石，明确地展示了植物左撇子、茎缠绕生长习惯的第一个直接化石证据。这种化石植物有一根较粗的、略弯曲的支撑茎（2 - 3.5毫米宽），它被一根较细的茎（1.5 - 2毫米宽）松散地螺旋缠绕，可能是藤本植物或藤本植物的远端分支的一部分。
Twining stems of plants are very common in extant tropical and subtropical forests, and the climbing growth habit of plants may be an evolutionary innovation and ecological adaptation to either closed, shady or open, edge environments. However, the origin of handedness in climbing plants remains unclear. Here we report a Miocene (ca. 16 million years ago) macrofossil from the Shanwang Formation of Shandong Province, Eastern China, unequivocally exhibiting the first direct fossil evidence for a left-handed, stem-twining growth habit in plants. This fossil plant bears a thicker, slightly curved supporting stem (2 - 3.5 mm wide), which is loosely, spirally twined by a thinner stem (1.5 - 2 mm wide), possibly representing part of distal branches from a liana or vine.