Publication Date:
2014-03-22
Description:
Rapidly permineralized fossils can provide exceptional insights into the evolution of life over geological time. Here, we present an exquisitely preserved, calcified stem of a royal fern (Osmundaceae) from Early Jurassic lahar deposits of Sweden in which authigenic mineral precipitation from hydrothermal brines occurred so rapidly that it preserved cytoplasm, cytosol granules, nuclei, and even chromosomes in various stages of cell division. Morphometric parameters of interphase nuclei match those of extant Osmundaceae, indicating that the genome size of these reputed "living fossils" has remained unchanged over at least 180 million years-a paramount example of evolutionary stasis.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bomfleur, Benjamin -- McLoughlin, Stephen -- Vajda, Vivi -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Mar 21;343(6177):1376-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1249884.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Post Office Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24653037" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Biological Evolution
;
Cell Nucleus/*ultrastructure
;
Chromosomes, Plant/*ultrastructure
;
Ferns/*genetics/ultrastructure
;
*Fossils
;
*Genome, Plant
;
Sweden
;
Time
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
