About This Project

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The fossils that paleontologists study are the remains of bygone organisms that survived to become a fossil - a very small proportion of the actual ancient ecosystem. We base our understanding of past life and ecology on these fossils, but to be confident with those reconstructions, we must understand how these samples are biased. Taphonomy – the study of how fossils form – focuses on processes that may alter the assemblage and affect our ability to interpret the past.

The science of plant taphonomy has focused primarily on pre-burial processes - the effects of habitat, transport, and sinking. For example, leaves at the tops of trees are more likely to be transported by wind to a river or lake, where fossils form. However, post-burial processes, such as decay, remain relatively unexplored.

What is the significance of this project?

The role of decay in the formation of animal fossils has been well documented, but plants are made out of very different chemical components. The details of their decay are poorly understood and we don’t know how this affects which plants do or do not survive to be fossilized. In addition, structures and chemistries vary between plant groups, which may affect their chances of being preserved.

Fossil leaves of different groups, for example ferns and Ginkgo, often look very different even when they are preserved in the same rocks. The reason for this phenomenon is not understood, and may be controlled by the plants themselves! If certain plant groups decay away much more quickly than others, then our views of plant diversity through time may be biased - and my goal is to figure this out!

What are the goals of the project?

This funding would support the decay experiments themselves. I will be comparing the decay rates of 20 different species of 4 major groups of plants (flowering plants, conifers, Ginkgo, and ferns). Leaves from each group will be selected from plants in the Yale Marsh Botanic Gardens and decayed in a controlled environment for up to one year, with sampling taking place at 6 different time steps. The focus of these experiments is morphology - how do the leaves change over time? Do they lose important characters that help to identify them? Do certain species decay away entirely while others remain identifiable? The results of the experiments will be compared to fossil plants - giving us insight into the time frame in which plant fossils must form to preserve important morphology.