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Fossil evidence of tylosis formation in Late Devonian plants

Nature Plants volume 9, pages 695–698 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Tyloses are swellings of parenchyma cells into adjacent water-conducting cells that develop in vascular plants as part of heartwood formation or specifically in response to embolism and pathogen infection. Here we document tyloses in Late Devonian (approximately 360 Myr ago) Callixylon wood. This discovery suggests that some of the earliest woody trees were already capable of protecting their vascular system by occluding individual conducting cells.

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Fig. 1: Late Devonian Callixylon wood containing tyloses.

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Data availability

All data that support the findings of this study are included in this published article and its Supplementary Information files. A high-resolution image of the section showing tylosis from Supplementary Fig. 3 is also available on Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21572448.v1. The fossil and associated slides are currently on loan at UMR AMP Montpellier and accessible under specimen number HH5 (for HookHead No. 5). This material and other fossils illustrated in the supplementary figures will ultimately be deposited in the Trinity Geological Museum, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, once the study of the assemblage is completed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Tellus-Interrvie grant (DECA, CNRS-Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers) to A.-L.D. and a PHC Ulysses grant (no. 47212TK, Irish Research Council and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to C.J.H. and A.-L.D. We thank C. Girard (ISEM Montpellier) and B. Meyer-Berthaud (AMAP, Montpellier) for help in the field and comments on a previous draft of the paper. AMAP (botAny and Modelling of Plant Architecture and vegetation) is a joint research unit involving Montpellier University, CNRS (UMR 5120), CIRAD (UMR51), INRAe (UMR931) and IRD (UR123).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AMAP, Université Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAe, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Anne-Laure Decombeix, Carla J. Harper & Merlin Ramel

  2. Botany Department, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Carla J. Harper & Thibault Durieux

  3. EDDy Lab, Geology Department, Liege University, Liege, Belgium

    Cyrille Prestianni

  4. Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium

    Cyrille Prestianni

  5. SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany

    Michael Krings

  6. Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

    Michael Krings

Authors
  1. Anne-Laure Decombeix
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  2. Carla J. Harper
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  3. Cyrille Prestianni
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  4. Thibault Durieux
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  6. Michael Krings
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Contributions

A.-L.D. and C.J.H. initiated the research project. A.-L.D., C.P. and T.D. participated in the fieldwork during which the material was collected. M.R. prepared the sections. A.-L.D. and M.R. photographed the sections. A.-L.D., C.J.H. and M.K. analysed the data with input from T.D. and C.P. C.P. analysed the sedimentological context and prepared the spores and cuticles illustrated in the supplementary figures. A.-L.D. and M.K. prepared the paper with contributions from all co-authors.

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Correspondence to Anne-Laure Decombeix.

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Nature Plants thanks Alexandru Tomescu, Zhuo Feng and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Decombeix, AL., Harper, C.J., Prestianni, C. et al. Fossil evidence of tylosis formation in Late Devonian plants. Nat. Plants 9, 695–698 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01394-0

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