It all started with a mistake. In 1872, scientists found a flower fossilized in amber in a mine in Russia. After analysis, they named it Stewartia kowalewskii and declared it extinct because they found no other similar plants. The find became a museum piece. A century and a half later, researchers from the University of Vienna and the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin decided to study the fossil of a flower and its pollen that had been preserved in resin for around 34 million years.
With a size of three centimeters, the flower is the largest that has been discovered preserved in amber so far. In general, known amber flower inclusions are rarely larger than 10 millimeters. The new analyzes gave the plant a new identity. The flower was from an entirely different genus: Symplocos, a flowering species that now grows in southeastern China and Japan.
learn more /i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_7d5b9b5029304d27b7ef8a7f28b4d70f/internal_photos/bs/2022/x/c/G09jK2SuGrrcgNO63Zgg/arvoreamazonia.jpg "Scientists identify world's largest flower preserved in amber for more than 34 million years 3")
The fossil was given a new name Symplocos kowalewskii and the discovery was publicized in an article published in Scientific Reports. Amber is like a time capsule, preserving plant and animal fossils down to the smallest detail over millions of years. Plant inclusions in amber are rare but extremely valuable to science.
“Our new insights into this extraordinary and beautiful floral inclusion are additional pieces of the puzzle that allow us to decode the flora of the Baltic Amber Forest and to understand the climate of the past,” says scientist EvaMaria Sadowski. “This new knowledge helps us to gain a deeper insight into the forests in the history of the earth and to understand their evolution in time and space,” he added.