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W. E. Stein, C. M. Berry, L. V. Hernick and F. Mannolini, “Surprisingly Complex Community Discovered in the Mid-Devonian Fossil Forest at Gilboa,” Nature, Vol. 483, No. 7387, 2012, pp. 78-81. doi:10.1038/nature10819

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: A Left-Handed, Stem-Twining Plant from the Miocene Shanwang Formation of Eastern China

  AUTHORS: Qi Wang, Si Shen, Zhenyu Li

  KEYWORDS: Climbing Growth Habit; Handedness; Liana; Miocene; Shanwang Formation; Stem-Twining Plants; Vine

  JOURNAL NAME: American Journal of Plant Sciences, Vol.4 No.5A, May 30, 2013

  ABSTRACT: Twining stems of plants are very common in extant tropical and subtropical forests, and the climbing growth habit of plants may be an evolutionary innovation and ecological adaptation to either closed, shady or open, edge environments. However, the origin of handedness in climbing plants remains unclear. Here we report a Miocene (ca. 16 million years ago) macrofossil from the Shanwang Formation of Shandong Province, Eastern China, unequivocally exhibiting the first direct fossil evidence for a left-handed, stem-twining growth habit in plants. This fossil plant bears a thicker, slightly curved supporting stem (2 - 3.5 mm wide), which is loosely, spirally twined by a thinner stem (1.5 - 2 mm wide), possibly representing part of distal branches from a liana or vine.