Archaefructus eoflora, artist’s restoration by Judith Dieruff,
Acta Geologica Sinica, Vol. 78, No. 4
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As the herbarium curator at IU Southeast, biology professor David Winship Taylor is well known for keeping tabs on Southern Indiana’s rare and endangered plant species. Now, after a three-year collaborative project, he also may become known for his work with the oldest flowering plant fossil on record. It was discovered in China in 2002.
The Archaefructus eoflora plant—approximately 133 million years old—is believed to have grown nearly a foot tall, grew within fresh water, and contained tiny brownish flowers. Small fish swam around the base of the plant. (See illustration above).
According to Taylor, finding the fossil is significant because “it is the oldest or one of the oldest plants with flowers in the fossil record” and “the oldest that is complete preserved from root to fruit.” He said it is unusual to discover a plant preserved intact, most likely by a volcano eruption that quickly covered the plant with ash that became rock.
Taylor, head of the Department of Biology at IU Southeast, visited China for three weeks in the summer of 2002. He collaborated with a team of scientists to write the article published in the August issue of Acta Geologica Sinica, an English language academic quarterly of the Geological Society of China. The fossil is permanently housed at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.
Taylor gained international attention among other scientists for his 1999 discovery in Jordan of one of the oldest flowering plants from the Middle East, and his description in 1990 of the oldest plant with flowers.
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