Porphyrin derivatives such as heme, which is present in blood, and chlorophylls found in plants and bacteria, are complexes of high chemical stability which can survive hundreds of millions of years. Examples from the fossil record are highlighted.

• Premise of the study: As an alternative to conventional thin‐sectioning, which destroys fossil material, high‐resolution X‐ray computed tomography (also called microtomography or microCT) integrated with scientific visualization, three‐dimensional (3D) image segmentation, size analysis, and computer animation is explored as a nondestructive method of imaging the internal anatomy of 150‐million‐year‐old conifer seed cones from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, USA, and of recent and other fossil cones.• Methods: MicroCT was carried out on cones using a General Electric phoenix v|tome|x s 240D, and resulting projections were processed with visualization software to produce image stacks of serial single sections for two‐dimensional (2D) visualization, 3D segmented reconstructions with targeted structures in color, and computer animations.• Results: If preserved in differing densities, microCT produced images of internal fossil tissues that showed important characters such as seed phyllotaxy or number of seeds per cone scale. Color segmentation of deeply embedded seeds highlighted the arrangement of seeds in spirals. MicroCT of recent cones was even more effective.• Conclusions: This is the first paper on microCT integrated with 3D segmentation and computer animation applied to silicified seed cones, which resulted in excellent 2D serial sections and segmented 3D reconstructions, revealing features requisite to cone identification and understanding of strobilus construction.

Although the well-known Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation has yielded abundant fossil plants for nearly a century, relatively little is known about fossil fungi and their ecological relationships to the Morrison flora. The first mention of fungal decay in fossil wood was briefly made over three decades ago, and since then, a few more reports of fungal decay associated with Morrison plants have been published. However, up to now, detailed data on the fossil fungi themselves have not been given from the Morrison Formation. Here we describe in detail well-preserved fossil mycelia in a silicified log of Xenoxylon utahense Xie et Gee, 2021 from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation at Miners Draw, Blue Mountain, near Vernal in northeastern Utah, USA. The fungal hyphae are variable in form, ranging from straight to slightly curved to highly coiled to tubular; they measure ~1.53 μm in diameter and possess clamp connections, septa, and occasional bifurcations. The occurrence of clamp connections typical of living Basidiomycota indicates a taxonomic affinity to this division of fungi. On the basis of the patterns of wood decay in the Xenoxylon log, the fossil fungi are interpreted here as pertaining to saprotrophic, white-rot wood fungi. These fossil mycelia represent a new record of ancient Basidiomycota from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation and provide further evidence for plant–fungus interactions in Jurassic terrestrial ecosystems.

A new local flora of silicified logs and wood has been discovered in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in the Rainbow Draw area near Dinosaur National Monument, northeastern Utah, USA. Fossil logs and wood were found in the Salt Wash Member at nine sites at Rainbow Draw and at one site near Miners Draw, south of Blue Mountain. The fossil logs are large and relatively intact, the longest measuring 11 m. The wood is well preserved, coniferous, and can be identified to the species level. Diagnostic anatomical features include resin plugs in the ray cells and axial tracheids, araucarioid tracheary pitting and crossfield pitting, and the lack of resin canals and true, regularly occurring growth rings. This taxon of fossil wood, originally described as Araucarioxylon hoodii Tidwell et Medlyn, is recognized here as a new combination, Agathoxylon hoodii (Tidwell et Medlyn) Gee, Sprinkel, Bennis et Gray, which pertains to the conifer family Araucariaceae. Based on the preserved girth of the logs, the minimum height of the trees could be reconstructed. The largest fossil logs measured at least 127 cm in diameter and hence reached a minimum height of 28 m. Judging from the growth habit of all naturally occurring araucariaceous trees today, the fossil plants likely formed forests of moderately tall trees and were well over 100 years old. The lack of true growth rings shows that there was no seasonality in the local paleoclimate, neither variations in summer–winter temperatures, nor wet–dry cycles. Thus, during the Late Jurassic, tall conifer forests with Agathoxylon hoodii grew in at least two areas in what is now Utah: east of the city of Vernal and near Mt. Ellen in the Henry Mountains. Coupled with the fossil evidence of conifer seed cones and pollen found in the Morrison Formation throughout eastern Utah, the newly discovered fossil logs and wood argue for the reconstruction of Upper Jurassic habitats in this region as mesic and wooded, and the climate as equable, not seasonal, nor semi-arid or arid.

Premise: Within a broader study on leaf fossilization in freshwater environments, a long‐term study on the development and microbiome composition of biofilms on the foliage of aquatic plants has been initiated to understand how microbes and biofilms contribute to leaf decay and preservation. Here, water lily leaves are employed as a study model to investigate the relationship between bacterial microbiomes, biodegradation, and fossilization. We compare four DNA extraction kits to reduce biases in interpretation and to identify the most suitable kit for the extraction of DNA from bacteria associated with biofilms on decaying water lily leaves for 16S rRNA amplicon analysis.Methods: We extracted surface‐associated DNA from Nymphaea leaves in early stages of decay at two water depth levels using four commercially available kits to identify the most suitable protocol for bacterial extraction, applying a mock microbial community standard to enable a reliable comparison of the kits.Results: Kit 4, the FastDNA Spin Kit for Soil, resulted in high DNA concentrations with better quality and yielded the most accurate depiction of the mock community. Comparison of the leaves at two water depths showed no significant differences in community composition.Discussion: The success of Kit 4 may be attributed to its use of bead beating with a homogenizer, which was more efficient in the lysis of Gram‐positive bacteria than the manual vortexing protocols used by the other kits. Our results show that microbial composition on leaves during early decay remains comparable and may change only in later stages of decomposition.