Pristine Early Eocene Wood Buried Deeply in Kimberlite from Northern Canada

We report exceptional preservation of fossil wood buried deeply in a kimberlite pipe that intruded northwestern Canada’s Slave Province 53.3±0.6 million years ago (Ma), revealed during excavation of diamond source rock. The wood originated from forest surrounding the eruption zone and collapsed into...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS ONE
Main Authors: Wolfe, Alexander P., Csank, Adam Z., Reyes, Alberto V., McKellar, Ryan C., Tappert, Ralf, Muehlenbachs, Karlis
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2012
Subjects:
Research Article
Canada
Subarctic
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3446892
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23029080
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045537
Description
Summary:We report exceptional preservation of fossil wood buried deeply in a kimberlite pipe that intruded northwestern Canada’s Slave Province 53.3±0.6 million years ago (Ma), revealed during excavation of diamond source rock. The wood originated from forest surrounding the eruption zone and collapsed into the diatreme before resettling in volcaniclastic kimberlite to depths >300 m, where it was mummified in a sterile environment. Anatomy of the unpermineralized wood permits conclusive identification to the genus Metasequoia (Cupressaceae). The wood yields genuine cellulose and occluded amber, both of which have been characterized spectroscopically and isotopically. From cellulose δ18O and δ2H measurements, we infer that Early Eocene paleoclimates in the western Canadian subarctic were 12–17°C warmer and four times wetter than present. Canadian kimberlites offer Lagerstätte-quality preservation of wood from a region with limited alternate sources of paleobotanical information.

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