Plant cytoplasm fossil appears intangible for many palaeontologists. The palaeobotanical practice in the past decades has indicated that plant cytoplasm fossil is a truthful existence. With the improvement of observing technologies, many ultrastructures comparable to those in living plants are being revealed. Sometimes the study on fossil plant cytoplasm can lend critical help to modern biologists on some headache problems. High temperature and wild fire play a key role in the fossilization of plant cytoplasm, and a formerly frequently ignored phenomenon, lightning, is of special importance for the fixation of some ultrastructure in fossil plant cells. The study on plant cytoplasm fossils helps lead palaeobotany onto a new level, promotes its fusion with other scientific disciplines, and also introduces new technologies into palaeontology. This paper reviews the history of plant cytoplasm fossil study, summarizes the achievement and knowledge accumulated so far, and depicts the future development in this field.

plant cytoplasm  /  fossil  /  ultrastructure  /  palaeobotany