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Published on: February 20, 2012
Natural product terpenoids in Eocene and Miocene conifer fossils
Angelika Otto1, James D White, Bernd R T Simoneit
1Environmental and Petroleum Geochemistry Group, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. a.otto@kristall.uni-frankfurt.de
Abstract:
Numerous saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons, but not polar compounds, originating from plants and microorganisms (biomarkers) have been reported in sediments, coals, and petroleum. Here we describe natural product terpenoids found in two fossil conifers, Taxodium balticum (Eocene) and Glyptostrobus oregonensis (Miocene). A similar terpenoid pattern is also observed in extant Taxodium distichum. The preservation of characteristic terpenoids (unaltered natural products) in the fossil conifers supports their systematic assignment to the Cypress family (Cupressaceae sensu lato). The results also show that fossil conifers can contain polar terpenoids, which are valuable markers for (paleo)chemosystematics and phylogeny.
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