Analyzing world's oldest woody plant fossil

[Still Waters]

Mapping the evolution of life on Earth requires a detailed understanding of the fossil record, and scientists are using synchrotron-based technologies to look back—way, way back—at the cell structure and chemistry of the earliest known woody plant.

Dr. Christine Strullu-Derrien and colleagues used the Canadian Light Source's SM beamline at the University of Saskatchewan to study Armoricaphyton chateaupannense, an extinct woody plant that is about 400 million years old. Their research focused on lignin, an organic compound in the plant tracheids, elongated cells that help transport water and mineral salts. Lignin makes the cells walls rigid and less water permeable, thereby improving the conductivity of their vascular system.

https://phys.org/news/2019-08-world-oldest-woody-fossil.html

[Piney]

A good earlier paper on Devonian woody plants.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128130124000024