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How are plant opals revealing the past?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

June 20, 2002

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The opal is an unusual stone made of silica and water; chemically, hydrous silicon dioxide. Opals contain anywhere from three to thirty percent water trapped in the matrix of silica.

Some species of plants also contain opals, albeit microscopic ones. Called plant opals, phytoliths (plant stones), or silica skeletons, plants make these 'stones'. Silicic acid or silicates are taken up and deposited in the lumen (space between cell walls), in the cell walls, or in the cells.

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In plants that form opals, the 'stones' can be found in almost any above-ground tissue. Rice is the only plant found so far that also deposits the silica in the roots. The size and shape of the opals are distinctive to each plant genus or family. Through a light microscope, plant opals show shades of pink, brown, and grey.

No one is certain why some plants started depositing silica in their tissues. Animals that eat grasses and plants high in silica have specialized teeth (hypsodont) that wear down slowly. Rice plants grown in silica-free soils are prone to disease fungus. Some suggest the deposition is simply a way for the plant to free itself of excess minerals.

When the plant dies or is burned, the opals remain. They even pass through the digestive tract of herbivores. They become microfossils in the soil, ancient fire pits, or coproliths (fossilized feces). The distinctive shapes are clues to what plant species were growing in an area. Changes in the types of plant opals deposited in soil layers indicate changes in ecosystems and the environment.

Terry Ball has posted SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) photographs of phytoliths taken from grasses. To view the micrographs, click on the link:

http://home.byu.net/tbb/

Click on the numbers beside the plant names to bring up the photograph. Unfortunately, SE Micrographs cannot show colors.

"Ancient Grazers: Find adds grass to dinosaur menu" by Sid Perkins in Science News Online is about recent research using phytoliths to determine what plants dinosaurs ate. To read the article, click on the link:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051119/fob1.asp

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