Horsetail is one of the oldest plants in the universe. They have been around for more than 400 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs, and are therefore the subject of constant research to understand what life was like in the past. In a recent study, researchers focused on the natural water filtration that plants do through their stems and discovered new clues.
When analyzing specimens of slippery horsetail (Horsetail), scientists found that following the internal movement of water within plants, the liquid undergoes very strong natural filtration, and its oxygen isotope signature is similar to those found in meteorites and extraterrestrial objects.
Oxygen isotope signatures act like natural fingerprints, helping researchers find the origins and processes of what they are analyzing. The discovery, led by the University of New Mexico (UNM) in the US, was published in the Annals of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) at the end of October.
“A horsetail stem is a meter-tall cylinder with a million evenly spaced holes. It’s an engineering marvel. Nothing like it can be created in the lab,” Zachary Sharp, lead author of the study, stressed in a statement.
Study seedlings were collected along the Rio Grande River in New Mexico (USA). The researchers looked at oxygen isotope values in both the lower and upper parts of the plants.
Different characteristics of common plants were detected in samples with higher concentrations of isotopes. “If I found this sample without knowing what it was, I would say it was from a meteorite,” Sharp said while presenting his research at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, in July.
Horsetail fossil
In addition to modern specimens, plant fossils can help scientists in other ways. The composition of some ancient horsetails contains phytoliths, small particles of silica that retain their isotopic signature from millions of years ago. By analyzing these, researchers can better understand, for example, what the climate was like during the time of the dinosaurs. New research needs to be conducted.
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