Researchers Discovered Fossils of "Beans" 10 Million Years Old

According to Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, January 12 (Reporter Zhuang Beining and Yue Ranran)The reporter learned from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that researchers from the institute, in collaboration with the National Museum of Nature of Vietnam, have discovered fossils of "beans" - oil hemp vine pods dating back about 10 million years in the northern region of Vietnam. This is the first confirmed fossil record of the genus Aralia discovered by scientists, and the related results were recently published in the international journal Review of Paleobotany and palynology

According to Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, January 12 (Reporter Zhuang Beining and Yue Ranran)The reporter learned from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that researchers from the institute, in collaboration with the National Museum of Nature of Vietnam, have discovered fossils of "beans" - oil hemp vine pods dating back about 10 million years in the northern region of Vietnam. This is the first confirmed fossil record of the genus Aralia discovered by scientists, and the related results were recently published in the international journal Review of Paleobotany and palynology.

Su Tao, a researcher at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "The fossil pods discovered this time are incomplete, but they are also over 30 centimeters long

The fossil was discovered by Vietnamese doctoral student Nguyen Pok hsiung from the Paleoecology Group of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Researchers have identified it as a similar species of the living white flower oil hemp vine. White flower oil hemp vine belongs to the subgenus of oil hemp vine, which is widely distributed in South China today.

Huang Jian, an assistant researcher at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that the discovery of fossils is of great significance for studying the evolution of the Nepenthes genus, indicating that approximately 10 million years ago, there were already tropical rainforests in northern Vietnam that were suitable for the survival of the Nepenthes genus. This study shows the close relationship between the flora of South China and the flora of North Vietnam in geological history, and provides paleobotanical evidence for the theory of tropical Asian origin of the flora of East Asia.