Winnipeg-
A University of Manitoba biologist, along with two American researchers, discovered a new genus of ancient plants.
The U of M’s Az Klymiuk along with Oregon State University’s Gar Rothwell and Ruth Stockey made the 136-year-old discovery.
Though it will not actually grow, the seeds of the fossil plant are exquisitely fossilized, allowing researchers to study them at a cellular level of detail.
According to a U of M news release, the fossil, which is a non-flowering plant from the Apple Bay fossil site on Vancouver Island, could represent a new order of plants.
The plant has been named “Xadzigacalix quatsinoensis,” a nod to the Kwak̓wala-speaking First Nations.
The Apple Bay fossil site is within the traditional territory of the Quatsino First Nation. It is also one of the most important fossil plant locations in the world.
“Apple Bay is incredible. The fossil plants there are preserved in three dimensions and a cellular level of detail. But more importantly, this flora gives us our best window into what the world looked like before the rise of flowering plants,” Klymiuk said in the Wednesday news release.
Klymiuk added that there is no other family of plants in the fossil record that closely resembles the newly discovered fossil plant.
“It’s rare to identify new orders or families of plants, but the Apple Bay site has now yielded two new orders; back in 2009 we identified a plant called Doylea, which produces paired seeds with fleshy coverings that are borne in cones,” Klymiuk said.
“Now we have yet another new group of plants which enclosed their seeds in fleshy coverings.”
The newly discovered-plant is different from any other lineage of plants due to the combination of its cellular anatomy, the morphology of the seeds, the enclosing cupule, as well as its growth and development.
Klymiuk noted that the “Xadzigacalix” represents how researchers are continuing to discover important fossil data.