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Published on: January 7, 2019
A hidden cradle of plant evolution in Permian tropical lowlands
Patrick Blomenkemper1, Hans Kerp1, Abdalla Abu Hamad2
1Palaeobotany Research Group, Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Abstract:
The latitudinal biodiversity gradient today has deep roots in the evolutionary history of Earth's biota over geologic time. In the marine realm, earliest fossil occurrences at low latitudes reveal a tropical cradle for many animal groups. However, the terrestrial fossil record-especially from drier environments that are thought to drive evolutionary innovation-is sparse. We present mixed plant-fossil assemblages from Permian equatorial lowlands in present-day Jordan that harbor precocious records of three major seed-plant lineages that all became dominant during the Mesozoic, including the oldest representative of any living conifer family. These finds offer a glimpse of the early evolutionary origins of modern plant groups in disturbance-prone tropical habitats that are usually hidden from observation.
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