Leaf-wax n-alkane composition of an extinct Middle to Late Jurassic plant assemblage dominated by bennettitaleans

Leaf-wax n-alkane concentrations and average chain lengths (ACL) significantly vary among extant gymnosperm groups. When investigating deep-time archives, further plant groups need to be considered that since went extinct. Also, entirely aquatic plants, as known in the angiosperm clade, are not known to be amongst any fossil or extant gymnosperm group. The Middle to Late Jurassic macroplant assemblage preserved in the volcanic lake deposits of the Haifanggou Formation in Inner Mongolia, China, and attributed to the Yanliao Fossillagerstätte, reflects such a gymnosperm-dominated environment, amongst which the extinct Bennettitales constituted the dominant seed-plant component, with ginkgophytes and cupressoid conifers as additional major components. This fossil environment existed c. 35 million years prior to the rise of the angiosperms. The current study examines the relative n-alkane concentrations preserved in 33 samples from two excavations in the Haifanggou Formation. Despite the high age of the sampled strata, n-alkane preservation is excellent. In addition, the two excavations yield mean ACL_25–37 values of 28.2 and 27.8, respectively, and the n-alkane distributions are dominated by n-C₂₇ alkanes and, in some samples, by n-C₂₅ alkanes. Thus, given that Bennettitales were the dominant plant group in the assemblage, we hypothesize that bennettitalean cuticles were composed of n-alkanes with relatively short chain lengths compared to extant gymnosperm groups. To corroborate this hypothesis, further verification through direct analysis of well-preserved fossil cuticles of Bennettitales is warranted.