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CONTINENTAL CRUST

Plant fingerprints in the deep Earth

The colonization of Earth landmasses by vascular plants around 430 million years ago substantially impacted erosion and sediment transport mechanisms. This left behind fingerprints in magmatic rocks, linking the evolution of Earth’s biosphere with its internal processes.

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Fig. 1: Desert plant in the Sultanate of Oman.

Nicolas Greber

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Correspondence to Nicolas D. Greber.

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Greber, N.D. Plant fingerprints in the deep Earth. Nat. Geosci. 15, 685–686 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01022-0

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