The Jurassic fossil wood diversity from western Liaoning, NE China

Abstract

Western Liaoning is a unique region in China that bears diverse types of Jurassic plants, including leaves, fern rhizomes, and wood, providing significant proxy for vegetation and palaeoenvironment reconstruction of the well-known Yanliao Flora in East Asia. In particular, the silicified wood is very abundant in the fossil Lagerstätte of the Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation in Beipiao, western Liaoning. Previous and recent systematic investigations documented a high diversity of the Jurassic wood assemblages. These assemblages are dominated by conifers, followed by cycads and ginkgoaleans. In total, about 30 species belonging to 21 genera of fossil wood have been recorded so far, which are represented by Cycadopsida, Ginkgopsida, Coniferopsida, and Gymnospermae incertae sedis. The evolutionary implications of several distinctive fossil wood taxa as well as palaeoclimate implications are summarized based on their anatomical structures and growth ring patterns. This work approaches the vegetation development and evolutionary significances of the wood taxa and their relatives, and provides clues for the further understanding of the diversity of the Jurassic Yanliao Flora in East Asia.

A new structurally preserved fossil umbrella pine from the Jurassic of East Asia

“…Diverse and abundant permineralized plant remains are represented by fern rhizomes (Cheng & Li, 2007; Cheng, Wang, & Li, 2007; Tian et al, 2013, 2014,b; Zhang & Zheng, 1991), cycad stems (Zhang, Wang, Saiki, Li, & Zheng, 2006), as well as ginkgo and coniferous woods (e.g., Jiang et al, 2012; Jiang, Ferguson, Li, & Cheng, 2008; Tian et al, 2015; Wang, Saiki, Zhang, & Zheng, 2006), have been reported. In total, around 26 species across 17 genera of conifer wood have been described in this formation, although most of them are only preserved with secondary xylem (Jiang et al, 2019). Zhangoxylon is thus the first fossil wood taxa with anatomically preserved structures of pith, primary xylem, and secondary xylem.…”

Early Cretaceous Keteleerioxylon Wood in the Songliao Basin, Northeast China, and Its Geographic and Environmental Implications

“…Jiang et al reported that the Keteleeria liaoxiense and Keteleeria sp. were discovered from the Middle Jurassic Liaoning Province, but they did not give a description [ 36 ].…”

Mixoxylon australe gen. et sp. nov., a unique homoxylous wood with non-angiosperm affinity from the Lower Cretaceous of Antarctica (Albian, James Ross Island)

“…The systematic affiliation of Phoroxylon and Sahnioxylon is still unclear. In recent decades, some authors maintain that they belong to bennettitalean gymnosperms (Lemoigne & Torres 1988, Falcon-Lang & Cantrill 2001, Poole & Cantrill 2001; other authors think they represent an evolutionary transitional type and ancestral plant of angiosperms without vessels (see Jiang et al 2019). The studied fossil wood is homoxylous and pycnoxylic.…”