Plant fossils from the middle of the Himalayas
Fossil leaves of Alpine Oak
Photo courtesy of: Researcher Su Tao
Fossils of underground tubers of wood thieves
More than 200 million years ago, the Himalayas were also covered by the Tethys Sea, and due to the collision of the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate, the earth's crust rose, and the seafloor became the tallest mountain range on Earth today. And these fossils are a testament to the dramatic crustal movement in the Himalayas.
In the 2022 "Peak Mission" Everest scientific expedition, a paleobotanical scientific expedition team composed of 6 people, including Zhou Zhekun, researcher Su Tao, and Liu Jia of the Paleoecology Research Group of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, carried out a field scientific investigation of paleontological plants and paleoenvironments in the Everest area.
The expedition team has previously found fossils of alpine oak leaves and underground tubers of wood thieves in the vicinity of Mount Everest, and these fossil taxa are unlikely to survive in the fossil production areas at an altitude of nearly 6,000 meters today, which is of great significance for understanding the uplift history and the evolution of plant diversity in the Everest region.
The expedition continued to pay attention to the history of plant diversity evolution and environmental change in the Cenozoic era in the Everest region, and the expedition team members surveyed the stratigraphic profiles of five different geological periods on Mount Everest, and collected a large number of plant fossils, pollens and rock samples. In addition, the paleobotanical expedition team also deeply investigated the vertical gradient distribution of modern plant diversity in Yadonggou, Chentanggou, Zhangmugou and Jilonggou, and collected topsoil pollen samples and live plant specimens at an altitude of 1650 meters to 5500 meters, which will provide a reference for plant diversity and environment in the geological period of the Everest region.
In the next step, the scientific expedition team will continue to conduct a joint investigation of paleontological and paleontological fossils in the biological fossil strata of Mount Everest and its surrounding areas, revealing the evolution of ecosystems in the Everest region.
(Reporter Chen Qin, Xu Siqian Source: Su Tao, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
[Editor-in-charge: Tang Yusi]
[Source: CCTV News Client]