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The water in the fossil itself also needs to be replaced. As soon as the slab bearing the fossil is worked free from the rock, it is submerged in water to stop it from cracking. This involves packing it in plastic and sometimes wet newspaper. While in the wet state, it is cleaned up and all preparation needed for the transfer conducted. [15]
The study of fossil wood is sometimes called palaeoxylology, with a "palaeoxylologist" somebody who studies fossil wood. The fossil wood may be the only part of the plant that has been preserved, with the rest of the plant completely unknown: [1] therefore such wood may get a special kind of botanical name.
Plant fossils can be preserved in a variety of ways, each of which can give different types of information about the original parent plant. These modes of preservation may be summarised in a paleobotanical context as follows. Adpressions (compressions – impressions). These are the most commonly found type of plant fossil.
In some instances, the original structure of the stem tissue may be partially retained. Unlike other plant fossils, which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material. The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried in water or volcanic ash.
Although common sense suggests that volume and density are three dimensional and thickness is one dimensional, observations on various materials, including fossil plants of known shape [10] show that while under conditions of static vertical load, soils and fossils are maintained by pressure at the side.
Cuticle analysis, also known as fossil cuticle analysis and cuticular analysis, is an archaeobotanical method that uses plant cuticles to reconstruct the vegetation of past grassy environments. Cuticles comprise the protective layer of the skin, or epidermis , of leaves and blades of grass.
Lipid extraction, in particular, is a common practice, as it can reveal acids and alcohols characteristic of algal plants, as well as diagnostic lipids generated in the waxy cuticle of terrestrial plants. [25] Lignin phenols also serve as key biomarkers, helping researchers distinguish the source, plant type, tissue type, and age of organic ...
The International Fossil Plant Names Index (acronym IFPNI) is an online database of paleobotany.The site was launched in May 2014 to list the scientific names of fossil plants, algae, fungi, allied prokaryotic forms (formerly treated as algae and Cyanophyceae in particular), algal-related protists and microfossils published using binomial nomenclature.