Graminids from Eocene Baltic amber

Sadowski, Eva‐Maria; Schmidt, Alexander R.; Rudall, Paula J.; Simpson, David A.; Gröhn, Carsten; Wunderlich, Jörg; Seyfullah, Leyla J.

doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2016.02.005

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In the most recent studies by Sadowski et al (2016a, in press), this habitat heterogeneity was already suggested based on plant inclusions from Baltic amber, which served as “key taxa”, showing the presence of coastal and back swamps, riparian forests, and mixed‐mesophytic conifer–angiosperm forests. Open areas likely intermingled with the “Baltic amber forest”, indicated by inclusions of graminids and carnivorous plants (Sadowski et al, 2015, 2016b). Due to their strong influence on the canopy structure, dwarf mistletoes from Baltic amber support this evidence of the presence of light and open areas within the “Baltic amber forest”.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Diverse early dwarf mistletoes (Arceuthobium), ecological keystones of the Eocene Baltic amber biota

Sadowski

Seyfullah

Wilson

et al. 2017

American J of Botany

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Diverse early dwarf mistletoes (Arceuthobium), ecological keystones of the Eocene Baltic amber biota

Sadowski

Seyfullah

Wilson

et al. 2017

American J of Botany

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“…Thus, we suspect that the rareness of fern inclusions in Baltic amber is not a taphonomic bias. Following the latest reconstruction of the Baltic amber forest, it was a heterogeneous landscape with coastal swamps, bogs, lowland swamps, riparian forests, and mixed conifer‐angiosperm forest, intermingled by drier and light open patches (Sadowski et al, , , , ). The climate was most likely warm‐temperate to temperate and relatively humid (Kaasalainen et al, ; Sadowski et al, ; Rikkinen & Schmidt, ), so generally favoring terrestrial ferns but not epiphytic nor climbing ferns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How diverse were ferns in the Baltic amber forest?

Sadowski

Seyfullah

Regalado³

et al. 2019

J of Sytematics Evolution

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Diverse temperate forest types and a high atmospheric humidity have recently been suggested for the Eocene source area of Baltic amber. However, ferns are astonishingly rare as inclusions in this amber, which is in contrast to other seed‐free land plants, fungi, and lichens. Moreover, the identities of some of the few described putative fern taxa are dubious, and some fossils were even assigned to the Paleozoic seed fern genera Alethopteris, Pecopteris and to the form genus Sphenopteris containing Paleozoic and Mesozoic fern‐like leaf fossils. Here, we review previously described fern inclusions from Baltic amber and identify further fern‐like leaf inclusions as belonging to the extant angiosperm genus Comptonia (sweet ferns, Myricaceae). We conclude that only one taxon, Matonia striata (Matoniaceae), can with confidence be identified as a Polypodiopsida representative. Although “Pecopteris” humboldtiana is so far only known as sterile foliage, its leaf morphology strongly suggests that also this taxon belongs to the Polypodiopsida rather than to any other tracheophyte lineage. We propose accommodating “Pecopteris” humboldtiana in the new genus Berendtiopteris. “Alethopteris” serrata and “Sphenopteris” phyllocladoides are not to be regarded as evidence of ferns from Baltic amber. Reinvestigation of the holotypes of these two taxa did not reveal to which tracheophyte lineages these fossils belong. We suggest that the scarcity of fern remains from Baltic amber may reflect both a relatively low fern diversity in the source area of the fossil resin, and an absence or rarity of epiphytic and climbing ferns as observed in modern temperate forest ecosystems.

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“…(Archibald and Farrell, 2003;Archibald et al 2013;Szwedo, 2012;Szwedo and Kania, 2015;Wolfe et al, 2016). Palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological interpretations result in many questions regarding the variability of Baltic amber forest(s) habitats and environments (e.g., Alexeev and Alexeev, 2016;Perkovsky, 2016;Sadowski et al, 2016aSadowski et al, , 2016bSchmidt et al, 2016;Alexeev, 2017). However, it is probable that dry and open habitats, as e.g., sparse and open forests or low vegetation areas with a few resiniferous trees or at least on borderland with amber producing trees, were present in the area and at time of the Baltic amber deposit alimentation (Kohlmann-Adamska 2001; Szwedo, 2012;Szwedo and Drohojowska, 2015).…”

Section: Palaeoenvironmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%