Unique growth strategy in the Earth's first trees revealed in silicified fossil trunks from China

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Hong-He XuQiang Fu

Abstract

Cladoxylopsida included the earliest large trees that formed critical components of globally transformative pioneering forest ecosystems in the Mid- and early Late Devonian (ca. 393-372 Ma). Well-known cladoxylopsid fossils include the up to ∼1-m-diameter sandstone casts known as Eospermatopteris from Middle Devonian strata of New York State. Cladoxylopsid trunk structure comprised a more-or-less distinct cylinder of numerous separate cauline xylem strands connected internally with a network of medullary xylem strands and, near the base, externally with downward-growing roots, all embedded within parenchyma. However, the means by which this complex vascular system was able to grow to a large diameter is unknown. We demonstrate-based on exceptional, up to ∼70-cm-diameter silicified fossil trunks with extensive preservation of cellular anatomy from the early Late Devonian (Frasnian, ca. 374 Ma) of Xinjiang, China-that trunk expansion is associated with a cylindrical zone of diffuse secondary growth within ground and cortical parenchyma and with production of a large amount of wood containing both rays and growth increments concentrically around individual xylem strands by normal cambia. The xylem system accommodates expansion by ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 25, 2018·The New Phytologist·Christine Strullu-DerrienFrancis M Martin
Dec 16, 2018·The New Phytologist·Alexandru M F Tomescu, Andrew T Groover
Dec 24, 2019·Current Biology : CB·William E SteinJonathan R Leake
Mar 4, 2021·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Alexandru M F Tomescu

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