if i had a partner i would wake them up right now and i would say babe wake up im thinking about the plants that went extinct in the kt boundary comet blast again. babe the world has ended 1 million times and i want to grieve for every single one of them and its really messed up except for immediately after the kt extinction event when the ferns had so much sex they left an observable stripe of spore-dense matter fossilized in the rock forever, like that part was kinda funny. i think i have a stmoach ulcer again btw
Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but it turned out to be something called Tsor
"During an archaeological dig in a desert area north of Jerusalem 40 years ago, a seed was discovered which was determined to be in pristine condition but had obviously seen many a year.
Now, despite falling from its parent 1,000 years ago, it has grown into a mature tree, and botanists examining it believe it may be an extinct species that was used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years—even receiving a nod in the Bible.
Neither Israeli botanists, nor Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician who founded the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, could determine what species it was from simply from the seed covering. So they did what nature intended—they planted it.
Using a well-documented technique that saw 2,000-year-old date palm fruit pits germinate, Dr. Sallon soaked the seed in hormones, liquid fertilizer, and water, and then planted it in a pot of sterile seed; then waited.
Despite its genetic code being exposed to environmental stressors for over 1,000 years, the seed sprouted after 5 weeks. The shoot was protected by a caplike feature called an operculum. As the shoot grew, the operculum was shed—leaving something for the team to radiocarbon date. It narrowed down the age of the almost 10-centuries-old seed to between the years 993 an 1202.
Fast forward 14 years and the plant has become a 10-foot-tall tree. Dr. Sallon shared images of the tree, its bark, and its leaves with botanists around the world. One expert suggested it belonged to the genus Commiphora, found across the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa. A genetic analysis subsequently revealed this was the case, but a perfect match was lacking.
Pictured: The tree, now 14 years old.
Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but the best way to confirm that suspicion would be to have some aromatic traces similar to the resins of the myrrh tree to which it is related. However, no such fragrant compounds were detected.
Instead, the chemical analysis of the leaves identified a group of phytochemicals known as guggulterols which have been observed in a related species called Commiphora wightii that’s known to possess certain cancer-fighting properties in its resin.
A medicinal balm, the origin of which is not known, is mentioned in multiple historical texts including the Bible as ‘tsori,’ and rather than the fragrant Judean Balsam, it’s this tsori that Dr. Sallon and her team believe they have found.
They must wait until the tree, now 14 years old, produces flower or fruit to know for sure if it’s an extinct species, and if so, how to perhaps keep it alive.
Dr. Louise Colville, senior research leader in seed and stress biology at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN that it was a major accomplishment to grow a seed that old and possibly lead to a resurrection of this Biblical botanical.
“What’s surprising in this story is it was just a single seed and to be able to have one chance for that to germinate is extremely lucky,” she said.
“Working in a seed bank, seeing the potential for that extreme longevity gives us hope that banking and storing seeds that some at least will survive for very long periods of time.”"
-via Good News Network, October 8, 2024
--
Note: This is such a good demonstration of why seed banks are so important!! They give us such real and massive hope for deextinction and the revival of endangered species.
Because of Valentine's Day we had today a Flower Flocking #paleostream, covering different kinds of extinct angiosperms! Florissantia, Lovellea, Leguminocarpum and Sagaria!
[raises hand] re: the racism and dinosaurs in the jungle discussion, you said jungle evolved *because* nonavian dinosaurs went extinct? Would you elaborate on that because I’m fascinated. (If you don’t have time, is there a place you would suggest a layperson to begin reading about paleobotany?)
I can give you a short version, but there are tons of books I recommend reading, I'll have links at the bottom of this post
but the short version is: sauropods
Tropical rainforest, aka "jungle", as we know it today, did not exist even in a flowering plant - less form in the Mesozoic because of sauropods. They were so big, and so ubiquitous, dense jungle wasn't a thing. Even today, we see how rainforest is more open in Africa and Asia because of forest elephants, whereas in South America, it is much more dense. Sauropods were even bigger than forest elephants, and they were ecosystem engineers, clearing dense patches of forests and making it more open for them to maneuver through
Dense tropical broadleaf forests evolved in the early Paleogene during the rapid warming events of the late Paleocene and early Eocene, and they only could do so because of the lack of large land animals!
Sorry for the amazon links, but since they own abebooks it's not like I have a ton of options lmao yay technofeudalism
Amazon.com: Introduction to Plant Fossils: 9781108705028: Cleal, Christopher J., Thomas, Barry A.: Books
Buy The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Plants on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders
Buy When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders
Amazon.com: The Evolution of Plants: 9780199292233: Willis, Kathy, McElwain, Jennifer: Books
Amazon.com: How the Earth Turned Green: A Brief 3.8-Billion-Year History of Plants: 9780226069777: Armstrong, Joseph E.: Books
Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants: 9780521382946: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com
a new perspective...check out #perspectives for more of this journey through evolution!
"Bite Worse Than the Bark"
Maip
Cretaceous, 66 million years ago, Chorrillo Formation
The sun rises on a new day, bathing the clubmosses and podocarps in light. It's springtime, and the days are getting longer again. The frogs are croaking, the mammals are emerging, the turtles are basking, and the birds have new young. Sometime in the next five hundred thousand years, disaster will strike. But today is not that day.
Maip macrothorax is the apex predator of southern South America. Ten meters long, it takes on the name of a malicious Aonikenk figure. The biggest of all megaraptorans, Maip would have had dexterous forelimbs (for a theropod dinosaur, at least) as well as huge knife-like claws on its hands, allowing it to grapple prey and create big, gashing wounds while doing so.
There are two juvenile Maip in this picture, and they have fucked up big time by blundering into the territory of an unrelated adult. Like in many apex predators today, such an interaction would likely be hostile. Being relatively small in their younger state, I've also interpreted these guys as being capable of scaling trees when small, like black bears. Also, the juveniles have blue eyes here while the adult's are oranger!
As a southern region, the Chorrillo formation would have been temperate and humid. The plants show similar cloud forest ecosystems, but the area doesn't seem to have been high-altitude.
Alongside the Maip are a cast of other, smaller characters. Meiolaniid turtles existed back then (and went extinct sooooo close to the modern day, RIP), and of course there are enantiornithines like Yatenavis (one of the ones here has a little beggy fledgeling), as well as frogs and mammals of the time (such as Magallanodon under the rocks, one of the larger kinds of Gondwana).
Another goal of mine was to draw a Mesozoic piece with no ferns in it! The ground is dominated by magnoliids and other primitive angiosperms as shrubs and small trees, podocarps and herbaceous conifers, as well as a majority clubmoss cover.
Next up will be the first Paleogene piece! Stay tuned!
