Article: The preservation of conifer wood: examples from the Lower Cretaceous of Antarctica

The non-marine, upper part of the Fossil Bluff Formation (Lower Cretaceous) in Alexander Island, Antarctica, contains abundant fossil wood. Fine details of cell wall structures (including those produced by fungal and bacterial delignification) and relatively coarse cell-fill mineral textures indicate that silicification took place in two main stages. A silica overgrowth on cellulose microfibrils suggests early cell wall impregnation involving the precipitation of a very thin (?monomolecular) silica film on these structures. A later and much slower lumen fill is indicated by centripetal, euhedral quartz crystals and by cellophane and apatite within cells.