65 million-year-old plant fossils discovered in Turkey’s south
ANTALYA
Two plant fossils were found on 3,000-year-old rocks, one of which is thought to be 65 million years old in Beydağları in the Mediterranean province of Antalya and the other shows the formation of cliffs in the area where world-famous Düden Waterfall falls in the same region.
Geologist Erdal Koşun from Antalya University stated that both plant fossils were found during geological field studies conducted to obtain information about the formation process and history of the world.
“We read the past of the world from these geological materials, just as medical doctors take heart cardiographs and read our health background,” Koşun said, emphasizing that fossils provide information about the environment in which plants originated.
“The findings show that the environment in which the plants originated is a swampy environment rich in organic matter. It is understood from its color and content that it is a sediment belonging to the swamp,” he said.
Noting that the fossil was found in Beydağları mesozoic carbonates, Koşun said that the fossil was part of a sedimentary rock 60-65 million years ago.
“Another example of rock is a rock type known as travertine tufa, which was formed very recently and explains the evolution of the earth to us. The formation of Antalya cliffs is like this,” he said, adding that the cliffs still have been forming for 400,000 years.
Pointing out that there are traces of leaf fossils on the rock, the academic said that it is a composition of the rock that forms the Antalya cliffs.
