RESEARCH DATA IN PALEOBOTANY: thin petrographic fossil wood slides dataset
Description
Objective: The study aims to disseminate and analyze the collection of fossil wood stored in the collection of thin slides sections of the paleobotany collection of the Department of Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Institute of Geosciences of a University in southern Brazil. Thin sheets of petrified wood are described, while research data used for research in Geosciences, specifically, seeks to compose a model for the use of this type of sheet in paleobotany, allowing to visualize its representativeness in studies published in 40 years, will be obtained the anatomical characteristics of fossil woods and aiming to define their systematic affinities as a specific typology of research data in Geosciences. Methods: The methodology involves interviewing a paleobotany specialist and using different techniques applied in metric studies to map their scientific production. Thus, a dataset of (20) thin slides sections of petrified fossil wood used in the study Stressing environmental conditions in the “petrified forest” from the Mata Sequence in the Triassic context of the Paraná Basin published by the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, according to (DOI: 10.1016/j.jsames.2023.104415). According to the methodology used, these thin petrified wood sheets have the potential to identify paleoclimatic signatures based on the anatomical characteristics of fossil wood. In addition to this case study, which represents a collection of more than (2.000) thousand blades of fossil wood and about 40 years of research, this paleobotany collection of the Department is reused in methodology classes. It comprises a database of research physicists that provides information about anatomical features, systematic affinities, paleoclimatic conditions, and paleoenvironmental insights. Potential for reuse: Its reuse, registration, storage, identification, and preservation of thin sections as a type of research data used by paleobotany aims to improve the methodology associated with the organization of a physical database of the institution. The research data, and blades of fossil wood, are being digitized, and soon, all will be available under the CC BY 4.0 license in the Mendeley Data repository, according to the sample described here in this data paper. (doi: 10.17632/b8phfcsync.2) and may be reused by optical and electronic scanning microscopy software.
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Thin slides represent the dataset of physical data of petrified wood. They are prepared according to the standard technique for obtaining thin slides described in the literature but, distinctively from the grounding of 5my used for petrographic slides of rocks, the average slide thickness for wood analyses is of 40 µm. The research method is based on an open interview with a specialist in the domain of paleobotany, head professor, Professor Emeritus, and leader of a research group registered in the CNPQ/Brazil Directory, (ORCID: 0000-0002-9517-4593), with more than 40 years of experience in the field of paleobotany and with extensive experience in the application of different methodologies in fossil wood analysis. Throughout 40 years of paleobotanical analyses based on thin slides of petrified wood, the spectrum of information this type of biological data can provide has expanded. Currently, in addition to systematic results, the following information has been obtained using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) from surface metallization of thin slides with gold or carbon (dos Santos et al., 2023): (i) details of wood attack by microorganisms (ii) details of the fossilization process; (III) identification of remnants of organic products produced by the plant in response to biological attack. For the labeling, the following data are recorded on each slide (i) PB (indicates Paleobotany Collection) (ii) an acronym which is the same as the macroscopic specimen which is housed in the Paleobotanical Collection of the Department of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, followed by a dot and a numeral that indicates the ordering of the slide in the sequence of slides from the specimen; ( iv) in parentheses has registered the type of section that the slide represents: transverse (t), radial (r), or tangential [e.g., PB 5569.3(t) ].