English: Higher plants, particularly gymnosperms, produce diterpenoid resin acids with the abietane skeleton. When these plant tissues become buried in sediment and undergo diagenesis to become part of sedimentary rocks, the abietane skeleton survives. Today, abietanes found in the rock record are interpreted as evidence of gymnosperm life in the deep past.
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Abietane-type diterpenoids present in gymnosperm tissues and resins survive diagenesis and persist in the rock record, providing evidence of past plant life.