Plant-arthropod and plant-fungus interactions in late Permian gymnospermous woods from the Bogda Mountains, Xinjiang, northwestern China

Published Date
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
December 2016, Vol.235:120–128, doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2016.10.003

Author 

• Mingli Wan ^a,b,c
• Wan Yang ^c,d
• Lujun Liu ^a,b
• Jun Wang ^a,b,,

• aDepartment of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
• bState Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
• cGeology and Geophysics Program, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA
• dKey Laboratory of Petroleum Resources Research, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

Received 9 April 2016. Revised 30 August 2016. Accepted 10 October 2016. Available online 11 October 2016. 

Highlights

• •
  White-pocket rot is firstly recorded in Permian fossil wood from the Angara Flora.
• •
  Coprolites and borings in the fossil wood suggest arthropod-plant interactions.
• •
  Permian terrestrial ecosystems in mid-latitude northeastern Pangea are complex.

Abstract

Several lines of evidence of plant-arthropod and plant-fungus interactions are documented from the Wuchiapingian Wutonggou low-order cycle (approximate equivalent to the Wutonggou Formation) in Tarlong valley, southern Bogda Mountains, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwestern China. Fossil wood, Septomedullopitys szei Wan, Yang et Wang, contains differentially-damaged areas. Spindle-shaped pockets in the fossil wood occurring in the secondary xylem are commonly free of organic remains. They are comparable in appearance to modern white-pocket rot caused by fungi. The tracheid walls around the decomposed areas are degraded from the middle lamellae to outer layers. Abundant branching and septate fungal hyphae in the decayed areas, ray parenchyma and tracheid lumina indicate that fungi are responsible for the wood decay. These fungi are partially regarded as basidiomycetes because of the occurrence of clamp connections. According to the characteristic damages they caused to the host, ascomycetes are also viable candidates of the fungi because large parts of hyphae are without certain clamp connections. The other damaged excavations are branched and maze-like borings and galleries, which are filled with abundant fungal hyphae, cellular debris and spheroidal to ovoidal, dark-colored coprolites, ranging from 26 to 128 μm in diameter. The size, shape, and surface texture of these coprolites indicates that the coprolites are the feces of ancient oribatid mites. The fungal hyphae, coprolites, and degraded excavations in the pith of the late Permian wood suggest that wood-rotting and -boring were not limited to the xylem.

Keywords

Plant-arthropod interaction

Plant-fungus interaction

Septomedullopitys szei

Angara Flora

Wuchiapingian

Paleoecology

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• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author at: Department of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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