Dataset Information

A Middle Eocene lowland humid subtropical "Shangri-La" ecosystem in central Tibet.

ABSTRACT: Tibet's ancient topography and its role in climatic and biotic evolution remain speculative due to a paucity of quantitative surface-height measurements through time and space, and sparse fossil records. However, newly discovered fossils from a present elevation of ?4,850 m in central Tibet improve substantially our knowledge of the ancient Tibetan environment. The 70 plant fossil taxa so far recovered include the first occurrences of several modern Asian lineages and represent a Middle Eocene (?47 Mya) humid subtropical ecosystem. The fossils not only record the diverse composition of the ancient Tibetan biota, but also allow us to constrain the Middle Eocene land surface height in central Tibet to ?1,500 ± 900 m, and quantify the prevailing thermal and hydrological regime. This "Shangri-La"-like ecosystem experienced monsoon seasonality with a mean annual temperature of ?19 °C, and frosts were rare. It contained few Gondwanan taxa, yet was compositionally similar to contemporaneous floras in both North America and Europe. Our discovery quantifies a key part of Tibetan Paleogene topography and climate, and highlights the importance of Tibet in regard to the origin of modern Asian plant species and the evolution of global biodiversity.

SUBMITTER: Su T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7777077 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

A Middle Eocene lowland humid subtropical "Shangri-La" ecosystem in central Tibet.

Su Tao T Spicer Robert A RA Wu Fei-Xiang FX Farnsworth Alexander A Huang Jian J Del Rio Cédric C Deng Tao T Ding Lin L Deng Wei-Yu-Dong WY Huang Yong-Jiang YJ Hughes Alice A Jia Lin-Bo LB Jin Jian-Hua JH Li Shu-Feng SF Liang Shui-Qing SQ Liu Jia J Liu Xiao-Yan XY Sherlock Sarah S Spicer Teresa T Srivastava Gaurav G Tang He H Valdes Paul P Wang Teng-Xiang TX Widdowson Mike M Wu Meng-Xiao MX Xing Yao-Wu YW Xu Cong-Li CL Yang Jian J Zhang Cong C Zhang Shi-Tao ST Zhang Xin-Wen XW Zhao Fan F Zhou Zhe-Kun ZK

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20201207 52

Tibet's ancient topography and its role in climatic and biotic evolution remain speculative due to a paucity of quantitative surface-height measurements through time and space, and sparse fossil records. However, newly discovered fossils from a present elevation of ∼4,850 m in central Tibet improve substantially our knowledge of the ancient Tibetan environment. The 70 plant fossil taxa so far recovered include the first occurrences of several modern Asian lineages and represent a Middle Eocene ( ...[more]

PMID: 33288692

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Project description:BackgroundMedicinal plants used by the local people in Xizang (Tibet) have been investigated since the 1960s. The others out of Xizang, however, have been less understood, although they may be easily and strongly influenced by the various local herbal practices, diverse environments, local religious beliefs and different prevalent types of diseases. In 2006, two ethnobotanical surveys were organized in the county of Shangri-la, Yunnan Province, SW China, to document the traditional medicinal plants used by the Tibetan people.MethodsAfter literature surveying, four local townships were selected to carry out the field investigation. Three local healers were interviewed as key informants. The methods of ethnobotany, anthropology and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) were used in the field surveys. Plant taxonomic approach was adopted for voucher specimen identification.ResultsSixty-eight medicinal plant species in 64 genera of 40 families were recorded and collected. Among them, 23 species were found to have medicinal values that have not been recorded in any existing Tibetan literatures before, and 31 species were recorded to have traditional prescriptions. Moreover, the traditional preparations of each species and some folk medicinal knowledge were recorded and analyzed. These traditional prescriptions, preparations, new medicinal plants and folk medicinal knowledge and principles were discovered and summarized by local traditional Tibetan healers through times of treatment practices, and were passed down from generation to generation.ConclusionAs a part of the cultural diversity of Tibetan community, these traditional medicinal knowledge and experiences may provide data and information basis for the sustainable utilization and development of Tibetan medicine, and may contribute to the local economic development. However, for many reasons, they are disappearing gradually as time goes by. Our study showed that there were abundant traditional Tibetan medicinal prescriptions and using methods. It implies that more Tibetan medicinal plants and traditional knowledge can be discovered. Further research should be done to save the wealth of these traditional medicinal knowledge and experiences before they are dying out.

Dataset Information

A Middle Eocene lowland humid subtropical "Shangri-La" ecosystem in central Tibet.

Publications

A Middle Eocene lowland humid subtropical "Shangri-La" ecosystem in central Tibet.

Similar Datasets

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