法国国家科研中心日前发表公报称,该中心与法国国家自然历史博物馆合作,在一批形成于白垩纪时期的琥珀中发现了稀有的海洋浮游生物,这一成果将有助于人们加深对这些生物和当时海洋环境的认识。
国家科研中心在公报中说,这批琥珀在法国夏朗德省被发现,据分析,它们都形成于距今一亿年到9800万年间。研究人员表示,他们对千余块琥珀进行了分析,发现其中几块包含有海洋浮游生物。虽然数量稀少,但种类却很丰富,其中有单细胞藻类,如已经消失了的硅藻,还有一些诸如放射虫和有孔虫之类的浮游动物以及棘皮动物的尖刺等。
在诸多发现中,以含有硅藻的琥珀最为珍贵。研究人员称,硅藻的进化过程十分复杂,这一发现对于该海洋生物的研究具有“不可估量的价值”。
国家科研中心介绍说,琥珀是松柏科植物的树脂经过长时间地质作用而形成的化石,其中可能会包裹一些植物的叶子、花粉以及昆虫等,它能够保证这些物质历经久远而不发生变形,因此具有重要的科研价值。由于琥珀由松柏的树脂形成,因此含有海洋生物的可能性微乎其微。不过如果这些树木生长在滨海地区,当海水涨潮时被淹没在含有浮游生物的海水中,就可能形成包含有海洋浮游生物的琥珀。
这项研究成果已经发表在最新一期美国《国家科学院院刊》(PNAS)上。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原始出处:
PNAS,vol. 105 no. 45 17426-17429,Vincent Girard,Didier Néraudeau
Evidence for marine microfossils from amber
Vincent Girarda,1, Alexander R. Schmidtb,c,1, Simona Saint Martind,e, Steffi Struwec, Vincent Perrichotf, Jean-Paul Saint Martind, Danièle Groshenyg, Gérard Bretona, and Didier Néraudeaua
aUniversité de Rennes 1, Unité Mixte de Recherche Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 6118, 263 avenue du Général Leclerc, F-35042 Rennes Cedex, France;
bCourant Research Centre Geobiology, Georg-August-Universit?t G?ttingen, Goldschmidtstrasse 3, D-37077 G?ttingen, Germany;
cMuseum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany;
dMuséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Unité Mixte de Recherche Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5143, 8 rue Buffon, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France;
eFacultatea de Geologie si Geofizica, Universitatea din Bucuresti, bulevardul N. Balcescu no. 1, Bucuresti, Romania;
fPaleontological Institute, University of Kansas, Lindley Hall, 1475 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045; and
gUniversité Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg 1, Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre, Unité Mixte de Recherche Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 7517, 1 rue Blessig, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France
Abstract
Amber usually contains inclusions of terrestrial and rarely limnetic organisms that were embedded in the places were they lived in the amber forests. Therefore, it has been supposed that amber could not have preserved marine organisms. Here, we report the discovery amber-preserved marine microfossils. Diverse marine diatoms as well as radiolarians, sponge spicules, a foraminifer, and a spine of a larval echinoderm were found in Late Albian and Early Cenomanian amber samples of southwestern France. The highly fossiliferous resin samples solidified ≈100 million years ago on the floor of coastal mixed forests dominated by conifers. The amber forests of southwestern France grew directly along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and were influenced by the nearby sea: shells and remnants of marine organisms were probably introduced by wind, spray, or high tide from the beach or the sea onto the resin flows.