Sprecher
Beschreibung
A distinctive seed type is present in the stomach of two species of mammal and one unidentified small trogon-like bird from the late early to early middle Eocene oil shale (Cenozoic, Paleogene) of Messel, Germany. The bird contains several more or less intact seeds. Amongst the mammals two species of the rodent Masillamys contain numerous seed coat fragments. As revealed by SEM the surfaces of the seeds and seed fragments have a very distinctive pattern of polygons formed by rounded ridges. Within each polygon there are numerous (>10) small depressions. This pattern is identical to the surface cell pattern of seeds found intact and dispersed in the Messel oil shale named Carpolithus sp. 57 by Collinson, Manchester and Wilde in 2012. Complete seeds are small (3-4mm), globose to ellipsoidal and have very shiny surfaces. The majority of seed specimens in the oil shales are cracked indicating that the seed coat was very brittle. Almost all C. sp. 57 seed specimens in the palaeobotany collections of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Frankfurt are single seeds, none are multiple seeds. No fossil fruit has been found containing these seeds. Unfortunately the botanical affinity or growth habit of the plants which produced these seeds has not yet been identified. The seeds have been recorded from multiple collecting subsites at Messel so their parent plant must have been widespread in the vegetation around the Messel lake. Therefore, the seeds would have been a readily available resource for both mammals and birds.