Precocious germination of a pine cone in Eocene Baltic amber.

Seed germination is a crucial stage in the development of all plants. It normally occurs in the soil after the seed has fallen from the mother plant. In some infrequent instances, precocious germination (a type of viviparity or vivipary) occurs when the seed sprouts while still within the fruit. The present paper describes the first case of precocious germination of a fossil plant involving a number of seeds that have germinated in a pine cone embedded in Eocene Baltic amber. At the tips of the emerging hypocotyls are clusters of needles in fascicles of 5, associating the fossil with the extinct pine species Pinus cembrifolia Caspary described earlier from Baltic amber. Environmental implications of this discovery are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]