Reconstructing the Whole Plant Archaeopteris, A Late Devonian Progymnosperm Tree, and its Forested Landscapes

重建整株始祖蕨（晚泥盆世原裸子植物树）及其森林景观

• 批准号: 9728719
• 负责人: Stephen Scheckler
• 金额: $ 8万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-04-01 至 2001-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9728719&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Reconstructing; Whole; Plant; Archaeopteris; Late

Scheckler 9728719 Archaeopteris, a progymnosperm tree, dominated the Earth's first forests that began in the mid Paleozoic (Late Devonian, about 360-350 million years ago). These are extinct progymnosperm plants with many similarities to seed plants, but that reproduced by spores rather than seeds. These first forests are peculiar for several reasons. One is that they had only one to three species of Archaeopteris at a time. Another is that these trees grew and branched in self-limited way. Although tall (up to 30 m/90 It) and sometimes wide (up to 1 m/3 It), the trees were not old. The trees lived for only 3-20 years. Archaeopteris is an important model for growth and reproduction of potential ancestral seed plant relatives. Several buried forests are exposed in stone quarries near Binghamton, New York. The trees show how the landscape and vegetation of ancient floodplains changed with the emergence of this progymnosperm tree. New fossil specimens also show how Archaeopteris grew. This project examines the role of tree growth in production and spread of these new forest ecosystems by reconstructing the whole plant, from crown to roots, and by mapping the vegetation of these buried forests. At no other time in Earth's history did one plant type so dominate the world. These ancient forests thus provide important information about the role of species diversity or species poverty in the stability of forests and their ability to recover following disturbance.

Seckler 9728719始祖树是一种早熟生殖树，统治着地球上最早的森林，开始于中古生代(晚泥盆世，约3.6亿-3.5亿年前)。这些已灭绝的早熟生殖植物与种子植物有许多相似之处，但它们是通过孢子而不是种子繁殖的。这些最初的森林之所以特别，有几个原因。其一，他们一次只有一到三种始祖鸟。另一种是这些树以自我限制的方式生长和分枝。这些树虽然高(高达30米/90英寸)，有时也宽(高达1米/3英寸)，但并不老。这些树只存活了3-20年。始祖鸟是潜在的祖先种子植物近缘生长和繁殖的重要模式。几个被掩埋的森林暴露在纽约宾厄姆顿附近的石块采石场。这些树显示了古代泛滥平原的景观和植被随着这种进步树的出现而发生了怎样的变化。新的化石标本也显示了始祖鸟是如何生长的。该项目通过重建整个植物，从树冠到树根，并绘制这些被掩埋的森林的植被图，来研究树木生长在这些新的森林生态系统的生产和传播中的作用。在地球历史上，从未有一种植物类型如此主宰世界。因此，这些古老的森林提供了有关物种多样性或物种贫乏在森林稳定性及其在受到干扰后恢复能力方面的作用的重要信息。