DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1rn8pk0xg
title: Data from: Quantitative plant taphonomy: the cosmopolitan Mesozoic fern Weichselia reticulata as a case study

description: A quantitative approach to plant taphonomy focusing on preservation type
 and fragment size is tested by comparing 3338 Weichselia reticulata
 fragments from 25 Lower Cretaceous localities of different ages and
 depositional environments. Moreover, palaeobiological insights are also
 obtained from the taphonomic analyses. In the case of the specimens of
 Weichselia reticulata included in this work, charred remains are the most
 frequent preservation type. They are the smallest and most homogeneous in
 size, probably due to the fragmentation of the fronds while burning and to
 the fact that burnt fragments are more fragile and break easily during the
 initial abrasion and attrition produced by transport. The sizes of charred
 fragments vary depending on the depositional environment, suggesting that
 biostratinomic processes, and not fire temperature, are the main cause for
 size differences, and providing valuable insight into the distance the
 remains might have traveled from production to final deposition. The
 taphonomic analyses suggest that Weichselia reticulata is allochthonous in
 all the localities analysed, and that its habitat would have been prone to
 fire and not far from freshwater systems. This case study shows promising
 results that can be implemented on different plant groups and
 chronostratigraphic ages, allowing for the proposal of a taphonomic model.
description: Dataset for quantitative taphonomy of Weichselia
 reticulata: This dataset was collected from fossil
 specimens of Weichselia reticulata housed in museums or directly from the
 field. It has been uploaded as two csv files  "Database Weichselia
 fragments.csv" and "Database Weichselia
 fragments_associations.csv". The data is organized
 as follows: - Provenance of the specimen is specified
 as the locality where the specimen was unearthed. Provenance 2 was added
 to differentiate 3 areas in the locality of Buenache that are very
 distinct. - Specimen number corresponds to the catalog
 numbers of the specimen in the museum where they are housed (abbreviations
 are indicated in the material and methods section of the
 manuscript). - Preservation type is recorded as C
 (charred), I (impression), L (iron-oxide), D (calcite
 infilling). - Measurements are in cm and were mostly
 taken directly on the specimens, their maximum length is registered.
 Measurements correspond to the longest linear measurement of the specimen,
 except for curved pinnae where several measurements were taken along the
 curvature of the specimen to register a more robust length.
 - The completeness of the specimen is also recorded, a specimen
 is considered complete when the whole fragment is visible, it has not been
 covered by sediment or the rock has been fragmented making it impossible
 to see if the specimen has continuity or not. - When
 specimens are in association with each other this has been marked in the
 "In association" column. Hand specimens with more than 8
 associated pinnae are registered in the "Database Weichselia
 Fragments_associations.csv" file. In this file, columns are the same
 except for the "In association" column where an identification
 number is given to each association (from 1 to 48 in sequential
 order). - Specimens housed in museums have a specimen
 number for reference and have been marked as "museum" in the
 museum/field column. Specimens from the field generally do not have
 specimen numbers (as they were mostly not collected) and are marked as
 "field" in the museum/field column.
description: All files are .csv or .txt