Bryozoans on the leaf
Bryozoans on the leaf
A single Cretaceous specimen collected near Lwówek Śląski, now kept in the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. It is a very rare finding: a tree leaf overgrown by marine bryozoans. This evidences that the leaf was intact for a sufficiently long time for the growth of a bryozoan colony, which is, in turn, significant for deducing the length of the transport of land plant remains from the place where they grew to the place where they were buried.
In the picture: Dewalquea? sp., incompletely preserved angiosperm leaf overgrown by colonies of cheilostome bryozoans. Upper Cretaceous, Coniacian; Karczmisko hill near Zbylutów, Lower Silesia, Poland. Specimen MB.Pb.2008/336, collected by W. Zimmer, 1918. Photograph and interpretive drawing (compare Halamski & Taylor 2022, figs 2, 3).
PUBLICATION: Halamski, A.T. & Taylor, P.D. 2022. Angiosperm tree leaf as a bryozoan substrate: a case study from the Cretaceous and its taphonomic consequences. Lethaia, 55 (1.9): 1–7. doi:10.18261/let.55.1.9