China News Service, Beijing, January 13 (Reporter Sun Zifa) A new fossil research paper published in the open-access academic journal "Scientific Report" under Springer Nature stated that researchers used the latest images to record a flower preserved in amber. The largest known fossil flower, with a diameter of 28 mm, is three times the size of other fossil flowers.
The largest fossilized flower ever encased in Baltic amber (Credit: Carola Radke, Museum of Natural History, Berlin)
Photo courtesy of Springer Nature
Encased in amber from the Baltic Forest in northern Europe, the fossilized flower dates back nearly 40 million years and is thought to come from an ancient flowering evergreen originally named Stewartia kowalewskii.
The largest fossilized flower ever encased in Baltic amber (Credit: Carola Radke, Museum of Natural History, Berlin)
Photo courtesy of Springer Nature
The paper's authors, Eva-Maria Sadowski and Christa-Charlotte Hofmann of the Museum of Natural History Berlin, Germany, reanalyzed the unusually large flower The fossil flower, which was first described and named in 1872.
This fossilized flower dates back to the late Eocene, between 38 million and 33.9 million years ago.
The authors of the paper extracted pollen from the fossil sample, and after analysis found that the fossil flower was closely related to an Asian species called Symplocos, they proposed renaming the flower Symplocos kowalewskii.
The authors note that the unusual size of Symplocos kowalewskii may have come from a massive exudation of the resin that encased the flower and formed the amber.
They believe that the properties of the resin may help prevent organic matter from growing on the flower and causing damage.
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