Paleontologists unearthed three large seeds (up to 7.2 centimeters long) and 43 fossil leaves of the ancient legume at the Wahana Baratama coal mine near Satui in South Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.
The newly identified legume lived in Southeast Asia between 40 and 34 million years ago (the Eocene Epoch).
Named Juntungspermum gunneriIt is very similar to the Australian black bean plant. Cassis.
“The tree currently occurs only in the coastal rainforests of northern Australia and nearby islands,” said Professor Peter Wilf of Pennsylvania State University and his colleagues.
Paleontologists found three fossil seeds, 43 leaves and pollen samples. Juntungspermum gunneri of Tanjun Formation South Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.
Also found were fossil tracks of a variety of birds, burrowing evidence of marine invertebrates, and the fossil remains of turtles.
“The seeds Juntungspermum gunneri “Apart from coconuts and other palm trees, it is one of the largest in the fossil record,” the researchers said.
“They probably grew up to a metre (3 feet) in length – about the length of a baseball bat – and in pods that could hold up to five seeds.”
“This fossil is the oldest legume fossil ever found in the Malay Archipelago and the first fossil record of a plant related to the black bean plant anywhere in the world.”
The researchers suggest that ancestors of the black bean plant migrated from Asia to Australia during a plate collision that brought the continents closer together, allowing for the exchange of plants and animals between the continents.
“The collision of the Southeast Asian and Australian plates, which began approximately 20 million years ago and is ongoing today, has led to a large-scale exchange of plant and animal species between the two continents,” the researchers said.
“This discovery provides the first macrofossil evidence of a migration of plant lineages from Asia to Australia following the Asia-Australia tectonic collision.”
“These fossil seeds are Cassis “They migrated from Southeast Asia to Australia during a tectonic collision and then became extinct in Asia,” said Edward Spagnolo, a doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University.
“This proposal runs counter to most of the existing direct macrofossil evidence of plant migration, which shows lineages migrating from Australia into Asia.”
of result Appears in International Journal of Plant Science.
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Edward J. Spagnuolo others2024. Giant seeds of extant Australian legumes are discovered in Eocene Borneo (South Kalimantan, Indonesia). International Journal of Plant Sciencein press; doi: 10.1086/730538
Source: www.sci.news
