Leyla Seyfullah

University of Vienna | UniWien · Institut für Paläontologie

The Carnian Pluvial Episode (Late Triassic) was a time of global environmental changes and possibly substantial coeval volcanism. The extent of the biological turnover in marine and terrestrial ecosystems is not well understood. Here, we present a meta-analysis of fossil data that suggests a substantial reduction in generic and species richness and...

Amber is chiefly known as a preservational medium of biological inclusions, but it is itself a chemofossil, comprised of fossilised plant resin. The chemistry of today's resins has been long investigated as a means of understanding the botanical sources of ambers. However, little is known about the chemical variability of resins and consequently ab...

Background Understanding the natural variability of plant resins is crucial for evaluating the chemical information stored in ambers that may support inferring palaeoenvironmental conditions. However, even among extant resin-producing plants, the variation of resinous exudates within and between tree genera and species is still poorly understood....

The Gnetales are one of the most fascinating groups within seed plants. Although the advent of molecular phylogenetics has generated some confidence in their phylogenetic placement of Gnetales within seed plants, their macroevolutionary history still presents many unknowns. Here, we review the reasons for such unknowns, and we focus the discussion...

Pollen of the rare endemic Australian conifer Wollemia nobilis (Araucariaceae) has been reported to have quite variable features and has been linked to the dispersed fossil pollen Dilwynites. It was suggested that Dilwynites could indicate the presence of Wollemia in the fossil record since the macrofossil record for Wollemia is difficult to distin...

The Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) has been recognized as a time of plant radiations and originations, likely related to observed swift changes from xerophytic to more hygrophytic floras. This suggests that the increasing humidity causally resulting from LIP volcanism was the trigger for these changes in the terrestrial realm. Understanding the caus...

Lichens are important in many modern terrestrial ecosystems, but their fossil record has been very sparse. This has limited the chances for finding any evidence of their interactions with animals in past ecosystems. Recently, the fossil record of lichens has improved significantly with the discovery of numerous new inclusions from European Paleogen...

Despite that there are only three morphologically isolated genera of Gnetales (gymnosperm) plants surviving today, they are thought to have had a major peak in diversity during the Early Cretaceous, with the Crato Formation being one of the richest sources for these plants. The reinvestigation of a Crato Formation palynoflora sample with LM and SEM...

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...

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...

Amber, a natural polymer, is fossil tree resin derived from diverse botanical sources with varying chemical compositions. As such, all amber is susceptible to the effects of light, temperature, relative humidity, and oxygen, as well as exposure to certain chemicals, and will deteriorate over time in collections if left unprotected. Here we review a...

Significance There were two heterosporous lignophyte lineages of which only one, the seed plants, survived the Permian–Triassic mass extinction. Based on exceptionally complete fossil trees from a 300-My-old volcanic ash, the enigmatic Noeggerathiales are now recognized as belonging to the other lineage. They diversified alongside the primary seed...

Here we present LM and SEM data of pollen of extant Sciadopitys verticillata, fossil Cerebropollenites from Aptian/Albian strata (Austria, Mongolia) and Sciadopityspollenites from Campanian/Maastrichtian and Oligocene/Miocene strata (Siberia, Germany). Measurements and image comparisons show that the investigated fossil pollen taxa range from somew...

This article presents re-investigated Crato Formation sample material from David J. Batten’s palynological legacy using a combination of light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The investigation shows that Afropollis jardinus specimens from Crato clay have central bodies that are either smaller (36%) or larger (42%) than half...

Background: Amber has been reported from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation, as isolated clasts or within plant tissues. Undescribed cones of uncertain gymnosperm affinity have also been recovered with amber preserved in situ. Here, we provide multiple lines of evidence to determine the botanical affinity of this enigmatic, conspicuous cone type...

Recently, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) has sent around a letter, dated 21st April, 2020 to more than 300 palaeontological journals, signed by the President, Vice President and a former President of the society (Rayfield et al. 2020). The signatories of this letter request significant changes to the common practices in palaeontology....

The spike mosses (Selaginella P.Beauv.; c. 750 species) are not only the most speciose extant genus of lycophytes, but also one of the largest land plant genera (Jermy, 1990). In addition to the exceptionally high number of living species it comprises, Selaginella is an ancient lineage believed to date back to the Carboniferous or even Devonian bas...

The Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of north-east Brazil yields a diverse plant assemblage. It has yielded many macrofossils thought to be related to the enigmatic gymnosperm group Gnetales, including the long leaf Welwitschiophyllum brasiliense Dilcher et al., 2005. This fossil plant is considered to be related to the extant gnetalean Welwitschia...

Some liquid plant exudates (e.g. resin) can be found preserved in the fossil record. However, due to their high solubility, gums have been assumed to dissolve before fossilisation. The visual appearance of gums (water-soluble polysaccharides) is so similar to other plant exudates, particularly resin, that chemical testing is essential to differenti...

Two new species of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) collected from New Caledonia are described and fi gured based on worker specimens: Leptogenys loarelae Ramage sp. nov. (Ponerinae, Ponerini) and Lioponera neocaledonica Jouault, Ramage & Perrichot sp. nov. (Dorylinae, Cerapachyini). All specimens were collected from the South Province of Grande Terr...

Plant fossils are recorded and described from Duckmantian clastic strata associated with coal seams in a small conserved area at Brymbo in the Wrexham (North Wales) coalfield. The exceptionally preserved flora consists of adpressions in mudstones, shales, and sandstones, more three‐dimensionally preserved plant remains in ironstone nodules, and thr...

Species belonging to the Carboniferous genera Lepidodendron and Lepidophloios are well known from the coalfields of Pennsylvania (Lower Asturian (Westphalian D) substage of the Pennsylvanian) through the publications of Lesquereux and White. They believed that the lycophyte flora was rather distinct from other contemporaneous coal floras elsewhere...

Diverse temperate forest types and a high atmospheric humidity have recently been suggested for the Eocene source area of Baltic amber. However, ferns are astonishingly rare as inclusions in this amber, which is in contrast to other seed‐free land plants, fungi and lichens. Moreover, the identities of some of the few described putative fern taxa ar...

Amber is a valuable source of Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossil fungi. The earliest amber‐preserved fungi were described in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Eocene Baltic amber. In 1907, Richard Klebs summarized the legacy of Robert Caspary based on his specimens, research notes and publications. This treatise contains descriptions and...

Marine microorganisms trapped in amber are extremely rare in the fossil record, and the few existing inclusions recovered so far originate from very few pieces of Cretaceous amber from France. Marine macroscopic inclusions are also very rare and were recently described from Cretaceous Burmese amber and Early Miocene Mexican amber. Whereas a coastal...

Amber (fossil resin) is not common throughout the fossil record, and previously the only globally significant deposits were thought to occur during the Cretaceous, Eocene, Oligocene and Miocene periods. Recent finds of Late Triassic (Carnian) ambers highlight a significantly older set of deposits. Here we review these ambers that appear coincident...

Amber is fossilised plant resin. It can be used to provide insights into the terrestrial conditions at the time the original resin was exuded. Amber research thus can inform many aspects of palaeontology, from the recovery and description of enclosed fossil organisms (biological inclusions) to attempts at reconstruction of past climates and environ...

Terrestrial ecosystems of the long-isolated former Gondwanan landmass of New Zealand are hotspots of modern global biodiversity, based on the level of endemism and distinctiveness of the biota. However, little is known of the evolutionary history of the rarely preserved but diverse, distinctive, fragile, mainly soft-bodied organisms such as arthrop...

In the late early Carnian (Late Triassic) an important, but yet poorly understood, phase of global climate change occurred. This is roughly coincident with a time of major biological turnover. Many important groups diversified or spread during the Carnian, e.g., dinosaurs, calcareous nannofossils, and modern conifers. Abrupt environmental changes a...

Eocene Baltic amber constitutes the largest amber deposit on Earth, however, knowledge about the vegetation and habitat diversity of its source area is very fragmentary. We analysed coniferous foliage from several historic Baltic amber collections and from new material, and consequently verify the occurrence of Calocedrus, Quasisequoia and Taxodium...

Conifers of the endemic species Araucaria humboldtensis on Mont Humboldt in New Caledonia exhibit extensive resin exudation. The resin flows of these threatened trees are here shown to be induced by two beetle species, which bore into branches and branchlets, leading to abundant outpouring of resin, which gradually solidifies into often drop-shaped...

The world’s sole ‘parasitic’ gymnosperm Parasitaxus usta (Podocarpaceae) is endemic to the island of Grande Terre, New Caledonia. It is a threatened species because of its limited geographic range and progressing habitat fragmentation. Here, we report a novel scale insect outbreak on a Parasitaxus sub-population from Monts Dzumac in the southern pa...

Premise of the study: Extant dwarf mistletoes (Arceuthobium M. Bieb., Viscaceae) are hemiparasites with complex roles in nature. They are one of the most severe pests in northern hemisphere conifer forests, but they also enhance the structural complexity and species diversity of the forests. Here, we describe the first pre-Miocene macrofossils of...

Stable carbon-isotope geochemistry of fossilized tree resin (amber) potentially could be a very useful tool to infer the composition of past atmospheres. To test the reliability of amber as a proxy for the atmosphere, we studied the variability of modern resin δ¹³C at both local and global scales. An amber δ¹³C curve was then built for the Cretaceo...

A novel species of ascomycetes is described from resin of Araucaria humboldtensis on Mont Humboldt in New Caledonia. The fungus is placed in the new genus Resinogalea, with the species name R. humboldtensis. It has only been found growing on semi-hardened resin flows on branches of its endemic and endangered conifer host. The morphology and anatomy...

During the past two decades, a plethora of fossil micro-organisms have been described from various Triassic to Miocene ambers. However, in addition to entrapped microbes, ambers commonly contain microscopic inclusions that sometimes resemble amoebae, ciliates, microfungi, and unicellular algae in size and shape, but do not provide further diagnosti...

We report the first bona fide graminid spikelet inclusions found in Eocene Baltic amber. The most informative anatomically preserved specimen is assigned to the genus Rhynchospora Vahl (Cyperaceae), whereas two others show affinities with sedges (Cyperaceae) or grasses (Poaceae). Examination of historic descriptions of putative graminid inclusions...

The Baltic amber deposit represents the largest accumulation of any fossil resin worldwide and hundreds of thousands of entrapped arthropods have been recovered so far. The source plants of Baltic amber, however, are still controversial, and the botanical composition of the 'Baltic amber forest' remains poorly studied. Here, we provide the first un...

article for Palaeontologyonline.com

Article for Palaeontologyonline.com

Article for palaeontologyonline.com

The arborescent lycophyte group known as the sigillarians bore pedunculate fructifications, including Sigillariostrobus Schimper, which has a known propensity to disaggregate, making comparisons of cones and in situ spores often difficult if not impossible. Sigillariostrobus is monosporangiate, containing either megaspores or microspores. Two new s...

Some of the most extraordinary fossils ever discovered, from insects to plants and feathers, are preserved in amber. Amber is the term for various solidified forms of plant resin that occur in the rock record. It can be found in many different colours, shapes and sizes (Fig. 1). Until the past decade, it was thought to be very rare, but new discove...

The arborescent lycophyte group known as the sigillarians bore pedunculate fructifications, including Sigillariostrobus Schimper, which has a known propensity to disaggregate, making comparisons of cones and in situ spores often difficult if not impossible. Sigillariostrobus is monosporangiate, containing either megaspores or microspores. Two new s...

The fossil record of lichens is scarce and many putative fossil lichens do not show an actual physiological relationship between mycobionts and photobionts or a typical habit, and are therefore disputed. Amber has preserved a huge variety of organisms in microscopic fidelity, and so the study of amber fossils is promising for elucidating the fossil...

Some higher plants, both angiosperms and gymnosperms, can produce resins and some of these resins can polymerize and fossilize to form ambers. Various physical and chemical techniques have been used to identify and profile different plant resins and have then been applied to fossilized resins (ambers), to try to detect their parent plant affinities...

Stigmaria is one of the iconic plant fossils of the Carboniferous and fragments of the narrower parts of the rhizomorph are found in most museum collections. However, very few almost entire specimens have been found and preserved. A new specimen of Stigmaria from Brymbo, North Wales is described and compared with other preserved examples from Europ...

Lepidodendron ophiurus Brongniart (Flemingitaceae, Lepidodendrales) has been gradually eroded as a distinct species by the inclusion of other species in its synonymy and as such is of no value for stratigraphical or palaeoecolgical interpretations. The species is critically re-examined, reinterpreted and rediagnosed with the aid of new epidermal de...

Significance Amber, fossil tree resin, preserves organisms in microscopic fidelity, and frequently fossils preserved in amber are otherwise absent in the entire fossil record. Plant remains, however, are rarely entrapped in amber, compared with the vast amount of insects and other animals. Our newly discovered fossils from Eocene Baltic amber are t...

A new resinicolous species of the genus Chaenothecopsis (Ascomycota, Mycocaliciales) is described from resin of Agathis ovata in New Caledonia. Chaenothecopsis neocaledonica sp. nov. is the first mycocalicioid fungus to be described from the exudates of Southern Hemisphere conifers of the family Araucariaceae. It is easily distinguished from relate...

The phylum Ascomycota is by far the largest group in the fungal kingdom. Ecologically important mutualistic associations such as mycorrhizae and lichens have evolved in this group, which are regarded as key innovations that supported the evolution of land plants. Only a few attempts have been made to date the origin of Ascomycota lineages by using...

Based upon anatomical evidence, Permian aged gigantopterid fossils are in general reconstructed as climbing or scrambling plants. Gigantonoclea, a genus of adpressed gigantopterid foliage from the Permian of northern China, has been reported to co-occur with hook-like organs that were interpreted as indicating a scrambling/climbing habit. We reinve...

Reinvestigation of the anatomically preserved stem Palaeosmunda plenasioides from the Lopingian (Late Permian) of China has led to the establishment of Zhongmingella gen. nov. within the extinct family Guaireaceae (Osmundales). Zhongmingella has a rhizomatous stem with heterogeneous pith and cortex comprising parenchyma and uniformly distributed se...

Amber can be described as occurring in ‘bursts’ during earth history, particularly in the Late Triassic, the Early and mid Cretaceous and the Eocene to Miocene, with many large deposits found worldwide. The causes of these unusual deposits are unclear and there are several theories surrounding these extensive outpourings of fossil resin. There are...

The anamorphic fungal genus Monotosporella (Ascomycota, Sordariomycetes) has been reco-vered from a piece of Early Eocene Indian amber, as well as from the surface of extant resin flows in New Caledonia. The fossil fungus was obtained from the Tarkeshwar Lignite Mine of Gujarat State, western India, and was part of the biota of an early tropical an...

Agaricomycetes are major components of extant terrestrial ecosystems; however, their fruiting bodies are exceedingly rare as fossils. Reinvestigation of a peculiar fossil from Late Triassic sediments of southern Germany interpreted as a bracket fungus revealed that this fossil in fact represents a wood abnormality, resulting from injury to the camb...