Application of neutron tomography in studying new material of Ixostrobus Raciborski from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

Cone‐producing gymnosperms are important elements of the Mesozoic floras. Studying their cone organizations can potentially help us understand the evolutionary trends of seed plants through time and the origin of angiosperms. In this paper, we present a new and an undetermined species of Ixostrobus Raciborski, a fossil genus representing male cones of the Czekanowskiales from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou locality in Inner Mongolia, China. The holotype specimen of the new species was studied using the neutron tomography (NT) technique. The cone shows higher neutron attenuation than the surrounding matrix. To detect the different organic compounds, a volume rendering of tomographic reconstruction with false colour spectrum of relative neutron attenuation is presented. The highest concentration of organic material is in the axis and some parts of the sacs, the rest of the cone has lower concentration, and the surrounding matrix has the lowest concentration. It seems that the remnant organic materials are regularly differentiated in different parts of the cone probably because of the preservation and different taphonomic process of different type of cells. In addition to revealing more detailed morphological features of the cone by NT reconstruction, the application of NT is potentially important for detecting remnant organic materials preserved in fossil plants.