Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 362, Issue 6421, Pages 1414-1416Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aau4061
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- German Science Foundation (DFG) [BO3131/1-1]
- DFG [KE584/11-1+2, KE584/20-1]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The latitudinal biodiversity gradient today has deep roots in the evolutionary history of Earth's biota over geologic time. In the marine realm, earliest fossil occurrences at low latitudes reveal a tropical cradle for many animal groups. However, the terrestrial fossil record-especially from drier environments that are thought to drive evolutionary innovation-is sparse. We present mixed plant-fossil assemblages from Permian equatorial lowlands in present-day Jordan that harbor precocious records of three major seed-plant lineages that all became dominant during the Mesozoic, including the oldest representative of any living conifer family. These finds offer a glimpse of the early evolutionary origins of modern plant groups in disturbance-prone tropical habitats that are usually hidden from observation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available