Biodiversity and palaeoclimatic implications of fossil wood from the non-marine Jurassic of China

Abstract

Fossil woods are widely recorded in the non-marine Jurassic deposits of China from nine provinces and 18 localities. About 33 species referred to 17 genera have been documented, which are mainly ascribed to coniferales, cycadales and bennettitales. Stratigraphically, the fossil woods vary between a variety of horizons in the Lower, Middle and Upper Jurassic; the occurrences predominate in the Aalenian-Bajocian, Bathonian-Callovian and Oxfordian-Tithonian intervals. Jurassic woods are mainly distributed in the Northern Floristic Province in China, whereas they are rare in the Southern Floristic Province. Diversity and anatomical characteristics, especially the growth ring feature analysis implies climatic conditions with distinct seasonal variation in the Northern Floristic Province during the Early, Middle and Late Jurassic periods.