Survey Counts About 140 Genera Of Fossil Plants From Messel (Eocene) Germany

[Oxytropidoceras]

Exciting Find: Over One Hundred Genera of Fossil Plants

from Eocene (Messel, Germany), Sci-News, July 27, 2012

http://www.sci-news....ticle00492.html

"A survey of the extensive fruit and seed collections from

the Middle Eocene of the Messel fossil site in Germany

has revealed 140 genera, representing more than 34

families of ancient seed plants."

Collinson, M. E., S. R. Manchester, and V. Wilde, 2012,

Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the Middle Eocene Messel

biota, Germany. Abhandlungen der Senckenberg

Gesellschaft für Naturforschung. Band no. 570, 251 pp.

http://www.schweizer...n/9783510614004

Yours,

Paul H.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Oxytropidoceras

[Auspex]

Messel is an amazing lagerstatt, to be sure!

The following line alone is enough to get any paleoecologist's blood pumping:

"Gut contents preserved in many birds and mammals prove that fruits and seeds played an integral part in vertebrate diets and borings in one seed type indicate seed predation by weevils."