Oldest Known Lichen Fossils Found in South China  

出　　处：《Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences》2005年第2期74-75,共2页中国科学院院刊（英文版）

摘　　要：Lichens are believed to play a pioneering role in transforming the earthsurface when they appeared on land hundreds of million years ago, paving the way for the evolutionof terrestrial plants and animals. But most habitats where lichens dominate, such as tundra,mountains, and deserts, have a very low chance of preserving fossils. Until recently the earliestknown lichen fossils were discovered in 1995 by Thomas N. Taylor, a University of Kansas researcher,from 400 million-year old deposits in Scotland. A recent study conducted by researchers from Chinaand the United States suggests that lichens may have existed on Earth 200 million years earlier thanpreviously believed, and their work was reported in the May 13 issue of the magazine Science.

关 键 词：中国 植物化石 青苔 植物演化 

分 类 号：Q914.2[天文地球—古生物学与地层学]