Abstract
Mummified leaflets of middle Eocene Metasequoia Miki sampled at 5 mm vertical intervals from a section of lignite extracted from the Upper Coal member of the Buchanan Lake Formation at Napartulik on Axel Heiberg Island were examined via transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to quantitatively and qualitatively assess the extent of sub-cellular preservation. The presence of chloroplasts and chloroplast constituents were tallied on a per cross-section basis, with equal examination time allotted to each cross-section. Features of note were stacked membranes, appressed membranes (grana), associated membranes, disassociated membranes, vesicular membranes, lipid droplets, starch grains and amorphous breakdown lipids. The size and shape of each organelle was measured, as well as the orientation. Intact chloroplasts were observed in 41.6% of the fossil leaves examined, and in 66.6% of the 5 mm intervals. In 27.7% of the leaves, the chloroplasts were so well preserved that features related to thylakoid geometry (degree of grana stacking, number of thylakoids per granum, stack width) were measurable. By performing a nested multivariate analysis of variance, significant differences in preservation were observed between individual leaflets as well as between vertical intervals. An apparent oscillation in preservation quality with an estimated period of 62.5 years was distinguished using the chloroplast features found to best discriminate between layers of lignite. The predominantly observed elliptical shape of the chloroplasts was deemed in general not to be the result of compression, but rather representative of the original geometry upon abscission, based upon the standard deviation of the orientation of the chloroplasts within each leaflet cross section. Where discernible, thylakoid features were used to classify the fossil leaflets as originating from high or low-light environments. Between 67 and 78% of the leaflets were classified as ‘shade-types.’
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Schoenhut, K. (2005). Ultrastructural Preservation in Middle Eocene Metasequoia Leaf Tissues from the Buchanan Lake Formation. In: LePage, B.A., Williams, C.J., Yang, H. (eds) The Geobiology and Ecology of Metasequoia. Topics in Geobiology, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2764-8_7
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