|
|
Article: Flowerless plants also made form of fancy amber: fossilized resin may hail from a preconifer or an extinct fern.(STORY ONE)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 24, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Everything eventually comes back in style. A type of amber thought to have been invented by flowering plants may have been en vogue millions of years before those plants evolved, suggests an analysis of newly discovered amber droplets. What kind of plant produced the droplets remains a mystery, but researchers say in the Oct. 2 Science that it could have been a predecessor of ancient conifers or some strange extinct fern.
Ambers are fossilized plant resins known for their golden luster and almost mineral-like qualities. Scientists found the new droplets in a 320-million-year-old coal deposit in Illinois. Their age was a surprise, says Ken Anderson of Southern ...