Structural and chemical features of seed fossils from paleozoic and mesozoic sedimentary strata

In this paper we report novel comparative structural-chemical studies of chemofossils from Paleozoic and Mesozoic seeds. The chemofossils had well-preserved organic matter with a high content of carbon and oxygen. It is shown that the high preservation of the coats of Paleozoic seeds resulted from the reducing environment of their fossilization, which is confirmed by the presence of inclusions of pyrite. IR and EPR spectra of the samples indicate that the chemofossils were of an aromatic nature, and the structural fragments had oxygen-containing functional groups. The Early Carboniferous seeds coats have paramagnetic properties conditioned by the presence of phenoxyl radicals. The chemical structure of the samples was reconstructed using pyrolytic chromatography–mass spectrometry and it was shown that the Early Carboniferous and Cretaceous seeds coats included relicts of different types of lignins. The lignin nature of the studied samples was confirmed by EPR signals of phenoxyl radicals with characteristics typical of natural lignins. We concluded that the Early Carboniferous seed coats contain unmethoxylated polymers of p-coumaric-catechyl type.

Chemical fossils, Lignins, Paleozoic and Mesozoic seeds

10.1016/j.orggeochem.2022.104370

0146-6380

104370

Kocheva, Lyudmila

93ed07b3-5787-4012-a48f-5f1ef1a8cda9

Karmanov, Anatoly

f13af813-918a-4e94-873b-6556621ce198

Telnova, Olga

4e52456a-cc9d-47a9-9cba-c55671687c5c

Marshall, John E.A.

cba178e3-91aa-49a2-b2ce-4b8d9d870b06

Lutoev, Vladimir

13a62b83-06bb-489c-8375-9835101acda1

Pokryshkin, Sergey

165e01c4-08df-4c01-9ee3-d529fff8c196

12 February 2022

Kocheva, Lyudmila

93ed07b3-5787-4012-a48f-5f1ef1a8cda9

Karmanov, Anatoly

f13af813-918a-4e94-873b-6556621ce198

Telnova, Olga

4e52456a-cc9d-47a9-9cba-c55671687c5c

Marshall, John E.A.

cba178e3-91aa-49a2-b2ce-4b8d9d870b06

Lutoev, Vladimir

13a62b83-06bb-489c-8375-9835101acda1

Pokryshkin, Sergey

165e01c4-08df-4c01-9ee3-d529fff8c196

Kocheva, Lyudmila, Karmanov, Anatoly, Telnova, Olga, Marshall, John E.A., Lutoev, Vladimir and Pokryshkin, Sergey (2022) Structural and chemical features of seed fossils from paleozoic and mesozoic sedimentary strata. Organic Geochemistry, 164, 104370, [104370]. (doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2022.104370).

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Structural and chemical features of seed fossils from Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary - Accepted Manuscript

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Accepted/In Press date: 17 January 2022

Published date: 12 February 2022

Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors are grateful to A. Shuysky (Institute of Geology, FRC, Komi SC, UB RAS, Syktyvkar) and A. Kudryavtsev (TESKAN, St. Petersburg) for assistance on SEM, X-ray microanalyzer and EBSD Symmetry detector, A. Khval (Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg) for kindly providing samples of cypress seeds. The work on the study of seed coats in VEGA3 TESCAN SEM and TESCAN MIRA3 SEM was carried out with partial financial support from RFBR grant No. 20-05-00445. The analysis and discussion of the results were carried out within the framework of the Russian-British grant “How did the environment react to climate change during the Devonian time in the European part of the Arctic” of the project “University Alliance”. Instrumentation of the Core Facility Center «Arctic» of Northern (Arctic) Federal University was used in this work. The early Carboniferous seeds were collected during the NERC funded TW: eed Project (NE/J021091/1). We thank the reviewers and editors for help in improving the paper. Funding Information: The authors are grateful to A. Shuysky (Institute of Geology, FRC, Komi SC, UB RAS, Syktyvkar) and A. Kudryavtsev (TESKAN, St. Petersburg) for assistance on SEM, X-ray microanalyzer and EBSD Symmetry detector, A. Khval (Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg) for kindly providing samples of cypress seeds. The work on the study of seed coats in VEGA3 TESCAN SEM and TESCAN MIRA3 SEM was carried out with partial financial support from RFBR grant No. 20-05-00445. The analysis and discussion of the results were carried out within the framework of the Russian-British grant ?How did the environment react to climate change during the Devonian time in the European part of the Arctic? of the project ?University Alliance?. Instrumentation of the Core Facility Center ?Arctic? of Northern (Arctic) Federal University was used in this work. The early Carboniferous seeds were collected during the NERC funded TW: eed Project (NE/J021091/1). We thank the reviewers and editors for help in improving the paper. The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

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