A tropical shrub called Chrysobalanus icaco pushes up through Brazil’s white sandy beaches. The plant’s leathery oval leaves and tough silver bark give it the distinct appearance of a mangrove species, adapted to a life buffeted by saltwater. Strangely, though, C. icaco also turns up more than a thousand miles inland, in the forests of the western Amazon. “We find fossil mangroves and associated coastal plants in the middle of the Amazon,” says paleoecologist Carina Hoorn, at the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

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新闻特写：亚马逊的海洋 [生态]

一种叫做Chrysobalanus icaco 的热带灌木穿过巴西的白色沙滩。这种植物的革质椭圆形叶子和坚韧的银色树皮赋予它一种红树林的独特外观，适应了盐水冲击的生活。然而，奇怪的是，C. icaco也出现在内陆一千多英里的亚马逊西部森林中。“我们在亚马逊中部发现了红树林化石和相关的沿海植物，”荷兰阿姆斯特丹大学的古生态学家 Carina Hoorn 说。