Abstract
Fossil cytoplasm is attracting increasing attention in the fossil record, and ultrastructures in plant cells are revealing new aspects of ancient life. Chloroplasts have been previously reported in fossil plants in the US, Canada, and Russia. Here, we report on fossil chloroplasts with internal ultrastructure in a fossil leaf of Nelumbo changchangensis from the Eocene of Hainan Island, South China. The chloroplasts in this fossil demonstrate great similarity to their counterparts in living relative as well as those in the previous reports. The well-preserved chloroplasts in plant fossils call for more attention to ultrastructures and the fossilizing mechanisms of cytoplasm.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Ms. Wang Chunzhao and Ms. He Cuiling for their help during this study. This research is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program 2012CB821901), Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-154), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41210001, 40772006, 40972011), and the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology Programs (20102108, 20101104, 123110). We are grateful to the graduate students of Sun Yat-sen University for their collaboration in the fieldwork on Hainan Island. We also thank Ms. Margaret Joyner at University of Florida for improving the manuscript.
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Wang, X., Liu, W., Du, K. et al. Ultrastructure of chloroplasts in fossil Nelumbo from the Eocene of Hainan Island, South China. Plant Syst Evol 300, 2259–2264 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-014-1056-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-014-1056-2