Over 40 million years old and coated in amber, the largest-known fossilized flower was rediscovered in Northern Europe’s Baltic region.
The unusual amber fossil, which was first recognized as belonging to a pharmacist by the name of Kowalewski in what is now the Russian city of Kaliningrad in 1872, has been reexamined by scientists.
The stunning fossil had been languishing mostly forgotten in the collection of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, according to Eva-Maria Sadowski, a postdoctoral researcher at Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde and author of the new study (BGR).
The scientists stated on Thursday in a new paper published in Scientific Reports that this tawny blossom, which appears to have just been picked out of a bouquet, is the largest flower ever discovered in amber. The flower is so well preserved that the researchers were able to recognize its floral ancestors who are currently living on another continent.
The sticky resin from a conifer tree near the Baltic Sea preserved the bloom for millions of years.
In 1872, scientists identified the flower fossil as an extinct evergreen plant named Stewartia Kowalewskii.
Researchers have now reexamined the specimen and determined that it was a case of mistaken identity. They discovered that the flower came from a different genus entirely: Symplocos, a flowering species that grows in southeast China and Japan today.
As such, they proposed a new name for the fossil—Symplocos Kowalewskii. The first record of an ancient Symplocos plant preserved in Baltic amber.
At 28 millimeters (1.1 inches) across, the fossilized flower may not sound particularly large. But it is about three times the size of most other amber-preserved flowers and larger than nearly half of all other Baltic amber pieces.
The specimen, which is kept at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Berlin, was found in an amber deposit in what is Kaliningrad, Russia, and was first described in the late 19th century.
According to Dr. Sadowski, earlier research revealed that amber from this region dates to the late Eocene epoch, between approximately 33.9 million and 38 million years ago, which suggests that this specimen also comes from the late Eocene.
Fossils like the one described in the new study are key to reconstructing what ancient ecosystems were like, Dr. Sadowski said.
Source: archaeology-world.com
