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Issue: Vol. 1 No. 2: May–June 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-06-27
DOI: 10.11646/mesozoic.1.2.10
Page range: 186-191
Abstract views: 159
PDF downloaded: 59

Occurrence of Early Cretaceous Shimakuroxylon wood in southeastern China, and its palaeobiogeographic significance

College of Palaeontology, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110086, China
Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Hangzhou 310014, China
College of Palaeontology, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110086, China; Key Laboratory for Evolution of Past Life in Northeast Asia, Ministry of Natural Resources, Shenyang 110034, China
Shimakuroxylon Early Cretaceous Laocun Formation Zhejiang Province Palaeogeography Palaeoclimate

Abstract

The Mesozoic gymnosperm genus Shimakuroxylon Philippe, Boura, Oh et Pons is a peculiar petrified wood taxon which was exclusively recorded from the Jurassic–Early Cretaceous interval in eastern Asia. To date, ten occurrences of this genus were documented in Japan, Indochina and Tibet (southwestern China). However, little is known about the record of Shimakuroxylon in eastern China. Here, we describe a new fossil wood specimen from the Lower Cretaceous Laocun Formation in Longyou County of Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, southeastern China. This fossil specimen exhibits typical Shimakuroxylon anatomy with japonicum-type (shimakurean) radial tracheid pitting and araucarioid cross-field pitting, representing a new record of Shimakuroxylon in eastern Asia. This new finding contributes to our understanding of the fossil wood diversity of the Early Cretaceous xyloflora in southern China, and provides additional data that furthers our knowledge of the palaeobiogeographical distribution of Shimakuroxylon. Shimakuroxylon is commonly suggested as an indicator of warm and wet climates based on its palaeobiogeographical distribution pattern. However, evidence from plant megafossils and sporopollen suggests the local climate of the study area was warm and arid to semiarid during the Early Cretaceous. It is tentatively suggested that the wood plant might have lived in a warm and humid basin margin with relatively sufficient water supply, though the general environmental background might have been arid to semiarid.

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