The fossil flora of the Dead Sea region, Jordan – A late Permian Garden of Delights

Abstract

The Umm Irna Formation, Jordan, holds one of the most peculiar late Permian plant–fossil assemblages worldwide. Over the last decades of field work, several localities close to the eastern shore of the Dead Sea have yielded a highly diverse ‘mixed flora’ of mesic to xeric environments encompassing elements that are typical either for different floral realms or for different time periods of Earth History. Taxa typical for particular floral realms include, e.g. Cathaysian gigantopterids and Lobatannularia, Euramerican conifers such as Otovicia hypnoides, or the characteristic Gondwanan seed ferns Glossopteris and Dicroidium. Moreover, most taxa are typical for the Permian, some assemblages have also yielded precocious occurrences of taxa that have so far been considered typical for the Mesozoic, such as Umkomasiaceae, Bennettitales, and podocarp conifers. In most cases, fossils from the Umm Irna Formation show well–preserved cuticles that allow sound systematic placement and contribute to the reconstruction of dispersed plant parts into whole–plant–taxa. Altogether, the Umm Irna Formation provides an exceptional window into depositional environments and vegetation types that are rarely preserved in the fossil record but that are crucial for our understanding of plant evolution.