Dieter UhlSenckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt · Palaeontology and Historical Geology
Dieter Uhl
apl. Prof. Dr.
About
317
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Introduction
My main interests are:
- The development of plant diversity through time with a focus on the Late Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic, as well as the Palaeogene.
- How can plants be used to reconstruct palaeoenvironments? Currently I am mainly focusing on fossil charcoal as an indicator of palaeo-wildfires.
Geographically my work is currently focussed on Central Europe and parts of Gondwana (i.e. Brazil, Jordan, India, S-Africa).
Publications
Publications (317)
Fossil wood is one of the crucial proxies for understanding terrestrial vegetation composition and development in the Earth's history. The gymnosperm wood taxon Xenoxylon Gothan is a significant member of the Mesozoic flora. To date, more than 20 species of Xenoxylon have been described. However, its botanical affinities have remained enigmatic eve...
Palynological studies from Europe and North America have repeatedly considered the Carboniferous miospore
genus Vestispora a useful biostratigraphic indicator, resulting in a detailed review and discussion of its variable
morphotypes. This was not the case in Gondwana, where Vestispora has rarely been reported. However, a few
studies from India...
Zwei Hölzer aus dem pliozänen Anteil der Iffezheim-Formation der Forschungsbohrung Riedstadt-Erfelden wurden im Rahmen der vorliegenden Studie untersucht. Aufgrund der lignitischen Erhaltung, die dazu führte, dass beide Hölzer anatomisch mehr oder minder schlecht erhalten sind, ist eine Bestimmung auf Artebene bei beiden Exemplaren nicht möglich. B...
With ongoing global warming, the frequency of wildfires has increased in many regions worldwide. To fully
understand the manifold interactions between warming climates and wildfires it is necessary to study wildfires
during Earth's history, preferably during periods characterized by warm climates. The Jurassic was a significant
greenhouse period in...
The Messel Pit, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is famous for its exceptional preservation of Central Europe’s Middle Eocene
terrestrial biota. Countless findings of various fossil mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects, and plants document a species-
rich and complex ecosystem thriving under a hot and humid paratropical climate. Most of the b...
Flowers are delicate structures that are relatively rare in the fossil record compared to other plant organs such as dispersed pollen,
leaves, fruits, or seeds. Also, due to their fragile state, fossil flowers are seldom complete, mostly with parts or complete stamens, petals, sepals, or stigma missing. Besides amber inclusions, most Cenozoic flowe...
The Middle Eocene Eckfeld maar (c. 44 Ma) and the Late Oligocene Enspel crater lake (c. 24 Ma) localities, both in Germany, are
renowned for the numerous well-preserved fossils they have yielded until the present day. Among these records, hundreds of angiosperm
flowers have not been taxonomically affiliated. In addition, thousands of insects have a...
Fossil Coleoptera with in situ and adhered pollen from the Eocene of Eckfeld, Germany
The middle Eocene Eckfeld maar (c. 44 Ma) deposits in Germany are known for numerous well-preserved fossils they have yielded until today. Among these records, thousands of insects have been recorded that potentially provide direct evidence for flower visitations...
Pollination by insects, including flies, is commonly a mutualistic interaction, in which both the plant and the insect benefit. Compared to other groups of pollinators or flower visitors relatively little is known about flower visitation by flies (Diptera) during most of the Cenozoic. Until now, the fossil record has provided only a few reliable fo...
Although abundant and diverse foliage fossils are well recorded in the Upper Triassic and Lower–Middle Jurassic of the Sichuan Basin in southern China, the Upper Jurassic plant fossils are rarely documented due to extensively developed red beds in this basin. Decades ago, abundant fossil wood specimens were discovered from the Upper Jurassic Pengla...
Fossils of Ginkgophyta are widely recognized as one better proxy to estimate Mesozoic and Cenozoic atmospheric CO2 levels. In this study, the fossil Ginkgoites species, Ginkgoites huttonii (Sternberg) Heer is described based on a collection from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) deposits in Northeast Iran. The palaeoatmospheric CO2 level during Middle...
Palynological and macro–charcoal studies have been carried out on fossiliferous material from the upper seam of the Barakar Formation of Simlong Open Cast Mine (OCM), Chuperbhita Coalfield, India. The palynoassemblage exhibits a dominance of non– striate bisaccate pollen, mainly Scheuringipollenites, and a subdominance of striate bisaccate pollen a...
Fossil wood is one of the most important proxies for terrestrial vegetation composition and continental paleogeographical reconstruction in Earth's history. The conifer wood Brachyoxylon is commonly found in Mesozoic deposits in Europe, Africa, South America, and Antarctica with more than one hundred known occurrences to date. However, only few occ...
The Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota in western Liaoning Province and adjacent regions, is one of the most spectacular Mesozoic terrestrial lagerstätten in East Asia. Diversified fossil woods have been reported for the last two decades for the Mesozoic. However, little is known about the fossil wood from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in the...
Miofloral and fossil charcoal analyses of the Permian deposits of the Barakar and Motur formations from core
PKK-2B, located in the Pench-Valley Coalfield, Satpura Basin (India) were carried out to assess the floral
diversity, evidence for palaeo-wildfire and age. Two distinct palynoassemblages are identified:
Faunipollenites varius palynoassemblag...
A significant member of the Mesozoic xylogical flora, Xenoxylon Gothan has been widely reported from northern China, its occurrence in southern China is yet rarely documented. Recently, three species of Xenoxylon have been described from the Upper Triassic and the Middle Jurassic in Guangdong, Sichuan, and Yunnan of southern China, separately. Howe...
The Jurassic System in the Sichuan Basin of eastern Asia is represented by the extensive development of massive thick red beds, mainly composed of purplish-red sandstones and mudstones. Abundant invertebrate and vertebrate fossils have been recovered from these Jurassic red beds. However, fossil woods are much less documented. Here, we describe fos...
The Late Palaeozoic is widely recognized as a ‘high-fire’ world. However, the impact of wildfires on the vegetational change as well as the relationship between fire and low atmospheric pCO2 and high pO2 in the Late Palaeozoic remains a matter of debate. New data on fossil charcoal and pyrogenic PAHs in coal deposits from the Yuzhou Coalfield, the...
Paleogene flower-insect interactions and paleo-pollination processes are, in general, poorly understood and fossil evidence for such floral and faunal interactions are rarely reported. To shed light on angiosperm flower-insect interactions, we investigated several hundred fossil flowers and insects from the middle Eocene Fossil Lagerstätte of Eckfe...
Bees of Europe are known to visit Tilia flowers of the subfamily Tilioideae and pollen grains of this plant genus are frequently found on the bee’s exterior, especially in their corbiculae and scopae. To unravel the origin and history of Tilioideae-Anthophila relationships through the geological history of Europe, we studied flowers and insects fro...
This PDF contains the extensive Supplementary Data of the paper "Amber and the Cretaceous Resinous Event" at the end of it
THE PAPER IS IN OPEN ACCESS IN THE URL:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104486
Amber is fossilized resin that preserves biological remains in exceptional detail, study of which has revolutionized understanding of past terrestrial organisms and habitats from the Early Cretaceous to the present day. Cretaceous amber outcrops are more abund...
The Lower Cretaceous Yamama Formation is well-known as one of the main carbonate oil reservoirs for many of the southern Iraq oilfields. However, its depositional environment has so far been poorly described using palynological techniques. Palynological assemblages from the Lower Cretaceous Yamama Formation in southern Iraq contain variable proport...
Evidence for palaeo-wildfires occurs widespread in continental Cretaceous deposits all over the world and large parts of the Cretaceous are considered as high-fire periods of the Earth’s history. However, published evidence for such Cretaceous wildfires is unevenly distributed, not only from a stratigraphical but also palaeogeographical point of vi...
In the course of a pilot study on the palynology of the late Paleocene (Thanetian) maar deposits of Menat (Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France), selected palynomorphs were analysed with the single grain technique. This technique allows for a consecutive analysis of individual grains by means of light microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The...
In this chapter, we present the story of the Oligocene
palynostratigraphy and floral composition in Egypt as told
by the preserved palynomorphs in the Dabaa Formation. It
is a step in establishing a regional biostratigraphic and
vegetational framework for the Oligocene, thus making
future integration of regional and global schemes possible,
especia...
Based on numerous findings of fossil charcoal worldwide, the Cretaceous is considered a high-fire period in Earth’s history. Macro-charcoal, as direct evidence for the occurrence of palaeo-wildfires during deposition of Cretaceous strata, has so far been reported from three different localities in Egypt: (1) the pre-Aptian Malha Formation of Wadi B...
The Cenomanian Bahariya Formation, which represents a unique stratigraphic window in Egypt, has been investigated for its plant macrofossil content. Despite being historically known for its yields of a diverse assemblage of plant lineages, this flora still needs careful investigation and reinterpretation in terms of climate and paleobiogeographic a...
Newly discovered impression/compression conifer fossil specimens of Elatocladus are reported from the Middle Jurassic of the Tabas Block in Iran. The occurrence of buds at the base and apex and other characters of the specimens confirm that the present material can be attributed to Elatocladus laxus (Phillips) Harris 1979. This is the first record...
Modern tropical rainforests (TRFs) are one of the most ecologically important and species-rich biomes on the planet. However, the origin of modern TRFs is still debated, especially due to the incongruence between the fossil record and molecular data. Here, we test whether Campanian assemblages from northeastern Africa could represent fossil TRF veg...
Cenozoic plant megafossil records from the eastern part of Nepal are meagre. Here, we report two new fossil leaves, namely Pterygota palaeoalata Srivastava and Mehrotra of the family Malvaceae and Thelypteridaceophyllum tertiarum Joshi and Mehrotra of the family Thelypteridaceae from the Middle Siwalik (late Miocene–early Pliocene) sediments of eas...
Fossilised compressed angiosperm flowers that can be determined in a botanically/systematically meaningful sense are rare in the fossil record. The main reason for this might be the preservation state, i.e., such fossils are in many cases strongly compacted, and can lack diagnostic features essential for proper identification and assignment to exta...
The interaction between flowers and visiting insects is evident on every continent except Antarctica. Despite the current close relationship between angiosperms and insects, little is known about flower-insect interactions through the geological record. While some exceptional findings have been reported that spotlight individual insect taxa and the...
Changes in terrestrial vegetation during the mid-Cretaceous and their link to climate and environmental change are poorly understood. In this study, we use plant macrofossils and analysis of fossil pollen and spores from the Western Desert, Egypt, to assess temporal changes in plant communities during the Cenomanian. The investigated strata have re...
Charcoal, a common product of wildfire, is abundant in many sedimentary rocks deposited in a wide range of environments, from terrestrial to marine. The analysis of paleofloras and the related palaeoecological conditions is of great importance for the understanding of past environmental and palaeoclimatic events. Woody charcoal is identified from t...
An enigmatic plant remain from the Kupferschiefer (Late Permian, Wuchiapingian) of
Richelsdorf in NE Hesse (Germany) is described and the potential systematic affiliation of the new taxon is discussed. Besides previously published (but unlikely) interpretations of the specimen as a thalloid algae or as an aphleboid pinnule of a fern (? Schizopteris...
Modern tropical rain forests (TRF) are one of the most ecologically important and species-rich biomes on the planet. However, the origin of modern TRF is still debated, especially due to the incongruence between the fossil record and molecular data. Here, we are testing whether Campanian assemblages from northeastern Africa could represent fossil T...
This study deals with lycopsid axes from Cisuralian strata of the São Sepé outcrop in southern Brazil, belonging to the Glossopteris flora. Their gross morphology is described using standard palaeobotanical techniques. They lack cuticles, but the description is complemented using vinyl polysiloxane replicas of their leaf cushions, which reveal impr...
The monotypic Azaniadendron fertile Rayner, a lycopsid from the Guadalupian of Gondwana, is investigated providing new data on the morphology of its leaf cushions and their variation in shape. Evidence for a ligule is presented for the first time, elucidating, at least for this genus, a dilemma about the presence of this structure in lycopsids from...
The freshwater diatomite deposits from Saint-Bauzile in the Ardèche (France) represent a first-class Fossil-Lagerstätte of late Miocene, i.e., Tortonian age. A large variety of different animals (i.e., insects, fishes, and mammals) and macro-plants as well as palynomorphs and lacustrine diatoms are known from this locality, in generally excellent p...
Late Triassic plant macro-remains are extremely rare in an equatorial belt stretching across the North of Gondwana from northern South America to Arabia. Located between the Laurussian floral province to the North and the Gondwana floral province to the South, this large area, is almost entirely lacking palaeobotanical data. Thus, this region is of...
The main objective of this study was to develop a methodology to evaluate, by physical and chemical methods, artificially charred logs from three species of Araucariaceae, and compare them fossil charcoal collected in the Faxinal and Belvedere outcrops for possible paleoenvironmental inferences. The species studied were Araucaria angustifolia, Arau...
We report studies of petrography, palynofacies, charcoal and adpressed plant fossils for the coal-bearing Jagannath section in the Talcher Coalfield, Mahanadi Basin, India, to improve understanding of the age, palaeoecology and depositional setting of this palaeo-mire. Palynology is indicative of the Scheuringipollenites barakarensis assemblage, su...
Fossil charcoal is the primary source of evidence for palaeo-wildfires and has gained increasing interest as a proxy in the reconstruction of past climates and environments. Today, increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation/humidity appear to correlate with increases in the frequency and intensity of wildfires in many re-gions worldwide....
Fossil evidence for wildfires, in form of fossil charcoal, is known from a large number of Cretaceous localities worldwide and it has repeatedly been argued that wildfires were connected to the evolution and radiation of angiosperms during this period. The present study provides new evidence (in form of macro-charcoal) for the occurrence of wildfires...
Macroscopic fossil charcoal fragments have been recovered from the borehole AK-19 (at a depth of 120.00 m) drilled at the Astona-Kothurna coal block, Wardha valley coalfield. In general, the occurrence of charcoal in sediments is accepted as a direct indicator for palaeo-wildfires. The charcoal fragments exhibits well preserved homogenized cell wal...
Download a free copy using this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SC2RXGHW88QRFGJVE9AB/full?target=10.1080/01916122.2021.2023057
Abstract
A palynological investigation was carried out on 24 samples from the Oligocene Dabaa Formation, which cuts across the Amana-1X well, located in the Abu El Gharadig Basin, north Western Desert, Egypt. Paly...
The record of Cretaceous palaeo-wildfires is rather scarce for peninsular India. We aim to report a detailed macro-charcoal analysis as evidence for palaeo wildfires of Early Cretaceous deposits from India. The macro-charcoal was studied using SEM and classified into three morphotypes based on anatomical characteristics. All morphotypes are probabl...
Charcoal remains and bulk lignites collected from the late Pliocene Jinsuo Basin in Yunnan, southwestern China, have been studied to reveal changes in the wildfire regime related to changes of the palaeoenvironment, palaeoclimate, and paleobotany. Different types of wildfire occurred in this paleomire with a predominance of low-temperature surface...
A new florula, dominated by angiosperm leaves, is reported from the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian?) Malihah Formation of Saudi Arabia. The leaves are fragmentary preserved as impressions with a rust coloured, mineral coating, thus it is only possible to describe the best-preserved leaf forms as morphotaxa for the time being. Eight angiosperm and two g...
Macro-charcoal from late Eocene–late Oligocene deposits of the Neuwied Basin in W-Germany provides evidence for the occurrence of palaeo-wildfires in three different time-slices in this region. (Par-)Autochthonous macro-charcoal from lignites of the late Eocene Bubenheim Formation of the locality Koblenz-Metternich can best be compared to the genus...
In der vorliegenden Arbeit beschreiben wir das Sekundär xylem eines fossilen Holzes aus den pliozänen Schichten, die in einem Krater see in Ruppach-Gold hausen im Wester wald (Rhein land-Pfalz, SW-Deutsch land) ab ge lagert wur-den. Das Exemplar ist lignitisiert und wurde auf grund seiner anatomischen Merk male als cf. Cupressin oxylon klas-sifizie...
The current state of knowledge on the Niedermoschel black shale of the Rotliegend (Lower Permian) is briefly summarized and an up-to-date list of the hitherto described taxa is given. A selection of representative specimens is photographed and reproduced. For the first time, the trace fossil Cochlichnus is described for the Rotliegend of the Saar-N...
The Cretaceous “high-fire” period was a global event that reached almost all continental masses during that period in Earth’s history. The extensive wildfires directly affected plant communities. Significant palaeobotanical records in the Antarctic Peninsula have been studied from the James Ross Sub-Basin, especially from the Santa Marta Formation....
Journal of Palaeosciences (previously: The Palaeobotanist)
70(2021): 159–171
Fire is a major driver for the evolution of biodiversity throughout the Phanerozoic and occurs in continental palaeoenvironments since the advent of the first land plants in the Silurian. The detection of palaeo–wildfire events can be based on different proxies, and charc...
Determining the diversity of past floras helps with interpreting both the history and predicting the future of vegetation change. For global-scale and regional-scale diversity studies especially, secondary data are often used but local-scale studies tend to be based on survey data that require rigorous sampling. The correct sampling strategies depe...
The main objective of this study was to develop a methodology to evaluate, by physical and chemical methods, artificially charred logs from three species of Araucariaceae, and compare them fossil charcoal collected in the Faxinal and Belvedere outcrops for possible paleoenvironmental inferences. The species studied were Araucaria angustifolia, Arau...
Palaeobotany and palynology are the main direct sources of evidence for studying vegetation diversity dynamics through geological time. However, plant fossil diversity is affected by various factors other than vegetation diversity, which need to be taken into account in such studies. The use of fossil-taxa will potentially inflate perceived plant d...
The Eocene–Oligocene transition period was marked by one of the most abrupt and severe global environmental changes in the Cenozoic record, and this had a marked influence on the evolution of a number of animal and plant groups and entire ecosystems. This study documents continental palynomorphs recovered from the sedimentary rocks of the Dabaa For...
Wildfires occurred more or less regularly in many Pennsylvanian ecosystems, not only in seasonally dry regions but also in the ever wet tropics. One of the reasons for this was probably the relatively high atmospheric oxygen conditions prevailing during this period. The present study reports evidence for the occurrence of wildfires during depositio...
The Paleocene Fossil-Lagerstätte Menat in France is well known for its wealth of outstandingly well preserved fossil insects and plants. Despite being known for more than a century, the palaeoflora, which is regarded as typical for the late Thanetian by some authors, has largely been neglected since the 1940s. New excavations and surveys yielded ex...
At the end of December 2020, Volker Mosbrugger retired, after 15 years, from his position as Director General of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturkunde, 2 years after he turned 65, the official age for retirement in Germany. During the last 40 years, Volker has built up an international reputation not only as a leading palaeobotanist, but also...
Extant lycopsids are small, mostly herbaceous plants, but during the Paleozoic, taxa of this lineage reached arborescent growth habits. Here we provide a glimpse into the lycopsid fossils from the Permian of Brazil. In this country, these plants have been reported from the Permian strata of the Parnaíba and Paraná basins. The Permian lycopsid fossi...
A new fossil taxon, Iratinia australis gen. nov. et. sp. nov., is proposed based on a monoxylic anatomically preserved axis from the Irati Formation, Kungurian of the Paraná Basin, Brazil. This specimen was initially interpreted as a lycopsid, but its set of morpho-anatomical characteristics indicate that it has systematic affinity with Cycadales....
This study provides a combined analysis on the palynology, fossil charcoal and biomarkers of the subsurface coal deposits from a borehole RMB #2 drilled at the Dhulia Coal Block, Rajmahal Basin, India, in attempts to establish the chronology of sedimentation and to propose palaeobotanical as well as geochemical evidence for the occurrence of wildfi...
We present 3 years (2011–2013) of in situ airborne pollen monitoring data on the northern slope of the Qomolangma (Everest) region to better understand the connections among airborne pollen, vegetation and climate. The pollen assemblage dominated by local herb and shrub pollen can reflect mountain shrub steppe vegetation. Herb pollen behave differe...
The late Paleocene fossil lagerstätte Menat in France is well known for its wealth of excellently preserved fossil plants and insects. Although the flora from this locality is regarded as characteristic for the late Thanetian in Western and Central Europe, there is a noteworthy lack of modern paleobotanical studies on this locality. The few existin...
In: Deutsche Stratigraphische Kommission (Hrsg.; Koordination und Redaktion: J. Paul & H. Heggemann für die Subkommission Perm-Trias): Stratigraphie von Deutschland XII. Zechstein