DOCSLIB.ORG

Discovery O F Bipinnate Ptilophyllum Leaves (Bennettitales) from The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Discovery O F Bipinnate Ptilophyllum Leaves (Bennettitales) from The No. 101 Proc. Japan Acad., 60, Ser. B (1984) 385 99. Discovery of Bipinnate Ptilophyllum Leaves (Bennettitales) from the Upper Jurassic Tochikubo Formation, Fukushima Prefecture, Northeast Japan*' By Tatsuaki KIMURA and Masanori TsuJii Tokyo Gakugei University, Koganei, Tokyo 184 (Communicated by Teiichi KOBAYASHI, M. J. A., Dec. 12, 1984) During 1983-4 we made a good collection of fossil plants from the Tochikubo Formation of the Somanakamura Group distributed along the Pacific coast in Fukushima Prefecture. According to Mori (1963) who studied the Somanakamura Group in detail, the geological age of the Tochikubo Formation is Oxf ordian. This paper deals with our proposal of a new genus based on the Ptilophyllum leaves of bipinnate habit found in our collection and with their description. Genus Nipponoptilophyllum Kimura et Tsujii nov. For diagnosis and discussion, see below. The prefix of its generic name is after Nippon (meaning Japan in Japanese). Type species : Nip ponoptilophyllum bipinnatum. Nipponoptilophyllum bipinnatum Kimura et Tsujii sp, nov. Figs. 1-10 Material : Holotype ; ARA-875. Paratypes ; ARA-391, 432, 456, 573, 576, 773. Other specimens ; ARA-177 and other 42 specimens. Stratum typicum : Tochikubo Formation (Oxf ordian), Somanakamura Group. Locus typicus : Aratozawa, Haranomachi-City, Fukushima Prefecture. Derivatio nominis : From bipinnate leaf. Diagnosis : Leaf bipinnate. Main rachis rather slender, 2.5 mm wide or more, giving alternately off penultimate pinnae at an angle of 60 degrees and typically at an interval of 1.4 cm. (Whole leaf unknown.) Penultimate pinnae varied in form and size; elongate- oblanceolate in outline, more than 10 cm long and 3.5 cm wide, or elongate-obovate, 7.5 cm long including petiole of 1 cm long and up to 3 cm wide. Penultimate pinna axis rather slender ; lower expanded end of petiole forming pulvinus, 2.5 mm wide. Pinnae imparipinnate, set closely, consisting at least of 20 pairs, attached alternately by whole base to the upper surface of pinna axis at an angle of 60-90 ' Supported by the Grant-in-Aids for the Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan (no. 59540499). 386 T. KIMURA and M. TsUJII [Vol. 60(B), Figs. 1-10 (natural size unless otherwise indicated). 1: A bipinnate leaf- fragment (la) and a detached penultimate pinnae (lb) (ARA-875, Holo- type, X1/2). 2: Drawn from la. 3: Drawn from lb. 4: Basal part of a detached penultimate pinna (4a) and detailed venation (4b, X2) drawn from a pinna of 4a (ARA-456, Paratype). 5 : Basal part of a detached penultimate pinna (ARA-773, Paratype). 6 : Ditto, showing the mode of attachment of pinnae ( ARA-391, Paratype, X2). 7-9: Distal portions of detached penultimate pinnae (7; ARA-573, Paratype. 8; ARA-531. 9; ARA-389). 10: Middle portion of a detached penultimate pinna (ARA-576, Paratype). degrees. Pinna axis concealed but sometimes partially exposed; lower portion of pinna axis devoid of pinnae for about 1 cm from base, thus forming a petiole. Pinnae nearly parallel-sided for the most part, No. 10] Bipinnate Ptilophyllum Leaves from NE-Japan 387 then suddenly narrowing to the obtusely pointed or rounded apex, or gradually narrowing to apex, typically 1.5-2 cm long and 3-3.5 mm wide, but those of two or three pairs of both distal and proximal regions shorter in length and triangular in form. Pinna base asym- metrical; acroscopic basal margin contracted and forming a rounded angle, and basiscopic basal margin mostly decurrent or occasionally straight, sometimes concealed by the acroscopic margin of pinna below. Veins arising from whole region of attachment, typically 7 in number at pinna base, mostly simple but one or two of them forked once, parallel, not divergent and ending with the distal margin of pinna. (Cuticle not preserved and reproductive organs unknown.) Distribution and occurrence : Nipponoptilophyllum bipinnatum is locally abundant at Aratozawa locality where its detached penulti- mate pinnae or their fragments are thickly massed and appressed. Discussion and comparison : Among a good number of speci- mens examined, only one shows a leaf of bipinnate habit although it is faintly preserved on the bedding plane of medium-grained sandstone together with many detached penultimate pinnae. Several detached penultimate pinnae are still with their pulvinus petioles. Judging from their occurrence, the penultimate pinnae appear to be easy to shed from the main rachis, but unfortunately we could not make their very point of attachment clear. Our penultimate pinnae are undoubtedly of Ptilophyllum-type, because the pinnae show asymmetrical base and are attached to the upper surface of pinna axis. Among about 60 Ptilophyllum species hitherto described, so far as we know, this is the first record of Ptilophyllum of bipinnate habit. Thus we here propose a new generic name Nipponoptilophyllum for it, we, however, don't think that in all other Ptilophyllum species hitherto known, their leaves are of bipinnate habit, because Bose and Kasat (1972) illustrated P. cutchense Morris showing singly pinnate leaves attached terminally to a Bucklandia-type stem (their fig. 114 of p1. 13) and P. acuti f olium Morris showing an apical crown of singly pinnate leaves (their fig. 116 of p1. 14). In size and form of pinnae (ultimate pinnae), our penultimate pinnae resemble the leaves of the following species: Ptilophyllum amarjolense Bose,1953 (Upper Jurassic of Rajmahal Hills), P, distans (Feistmantel) Jacob et Jacob, 1954 (Bose and Kasat, 1972) (Jurasso- Cretaceous Jabalpur Series), P. pectinoides (Phillips) Morris (Harris, 1942, 1969) (Middle Jurassic of Yorkshire) and P. vasekgahense Barnard et Miller, 1976 (Middle Jurassic of Iran). But they can externally be distinguished from ours. Further detailed comparison will be mentioned in our separate paper. 388 T. KIMURAand M. Tsuaii [Vol. 60(B), So far as we know no matched leaf with ours has been described and thus we here propose Nipponoptilophyllum bipinnatum sp, nov. Another bennettitalean leaf of bipinnate habit has already been described by Kimura and Kim (1982) from the Upper Triassic Daedong Supergroup, Korea as Coreanophyllum variisegmentum bear- ing Pterophyllum-type ultimate pinnae. Nipponoptilophyllum bipinnatum differs from any pteridosper- mous Ctenozamites species hitherto known in the reason mentioned previously by Kimura and Kim (1982). Acknowledgements. We express our sincere gratitude to Pro- fessor Emeritus Teiichi Kobayashi, M. J. A., of the University of Tokyo for giving us the facilities to publish this paper. Our thanks are extended to our students of the Tokyo Gakugei University for their help in collecting the material here described. References Barnard, P. D. W., and Miller, J. C. (1976) : Palaeontographica, B, 155, 31-117, pls. 1-15. Bose, M. N. (1953) : Proc. Natn. Inst. Sci. India, 19(5), 605-612, pls. 26-28. Bose, M. N., and Kasat, M. L. (1972) : Palaeobotanist, 19(2), 115-145, pls. 1-14. Harris, T. M. (1942) : Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (11), 9, 568-587. (1969) : Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), vi+186 pp., 7 pls. Jacob, K., and Jacob, C. (1954) : Palaeont. Indica, N. S., 33(1), 1-34, pls. 1-10. Kimura, T., and Kim, B.-K. (1982) : Proc. Japan Acad., 58B, 152-155. Mori, K. (1963) : Sci. Rep., Tohoku Univ., (2), 35(1), 33-65, pls. 21-23..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Seed Plant Phylogeny: Demise of the Anthophyte Hypothesis? Michael J
    bb10c06.qxd 02/29/2000 04:18 Page R106 R106 Dispatch Seed plant phylogeny: Demise of the anthophyte hypothesis? Michael J. Donoghue* and James A. Doyle† Recent molecular phylogenetic studies indicate, The first suggestions that Gnetales are related to surprisingly, that Gnetales are related to conifers, or angiosperms were based on several obvious morphological even derived from them, and that no other extant seed similarities — vessels in the wood, net-veined leaves in plants are closely related to angiosperms. Are these Gnetum, and reproductive organs made up of simple, results believable? Is this a clash between molecules unisexual, flower-like structures, which some considered and morphology? evolutionary precursors of the flowers of wind-pollinated Amentiferae, but others viewed as being reduced from Addresses: *Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. †Section of Evolution and more complex flowers in the common ancestor of Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA. angiosperms, Gnetales and Mesozoic Bennettitales [1]. E-mail: [email protected] These ideas went into eclipse with evidence that simple [email protected] flowers really are a derived, rather than primitive, feature Current Biology 2000, 10:R106–R109 of the Amentiferae, and that vessels arose independently in angiosperms and Gnetales. Vessels in angiosperms 0960-9822/00/$ – see front matter seem derived from tracheids with scalariform pits, whereas © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. in Gnetales they resemble tracheids with circular bor- dered pits, as in conifers. Gnetales are also like conifers in These are exciting times for those interested in plant lacking scalariform pitting in the primary xylem, and in evolution.
    [Show full text]
  • Ecological Sorting of Vascular Plant Classes During the Paleozoic Evolutionary Radiation
    i1 Ecological Sorting of Vascular Plant Classes During the Paleozoic Evolutionary Radiation William A. DiMichele, William E. Stein, and Richard M. Bateman DiMichele, W.A., Stein, W.E., and Bateman, R.M. 2001. Ecological sorting of vascular plant classes during the Paleozoic evolutionary radiation. In: W.D. Allmon and D.J. Bottjer, eds. Evolutionary Paleoecology: The Ecological Context of Macroevolutionary Change. Columbia University Press, New York. pp. 285-335 THE DISTINCTIVE BODY PLANS of vascular plants (lycopsids, ferns, sphenopsids, seed plants), corresponding roughly to traditional Linnean classes, originated in a radiation that began in the late Middle Devonian and ended in the Early Carboniferous. This relatively brief radiation followed a long period in the Silurian and Early Devonian during wrhich morphological complexity accrued slowly and preceded evolutionary diversifications con- fined within major body-plan themes during the Carboniferous. During the Middle Devonian-Early Carboniferous morphological radiation, the major class-level clades also became differentiated ecologically: Lycopsids were cen- tered in wetlands, seed plants in terra firma environments, sphenopsids in aggradational habitats, and ferns in disturbed environments. The strong con- gruence of phylogenetic pattern, morphological differentiation, and clade- level ecological distributions characterizes plant ecological and evolutionary dynamics throughout much of the late Paleozoic. In this study, we explore the phylogenetic relationships and realized ecomorphospace of reconstructed whole plants (or composite whole plants), representing each of the major body-plan clades, and examine the degree of overlap of these patterns with each other and with patterns of environmental distribution. We conclude that 285 286 EVOLUTIONARY PALEOECOLOGY ecological incumbency was a major factor circumscribing and channeling the course of early diversification events: events that profoundly affected the structure and composition of modern plant communities.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Noeggerathialean Reveals the Seed Plant Sister Group Diversified Alongside the Primary Seed Plant Radiation
    Ancient noeggerathialean reveals the seed plant sister group diversified alongside the primary seed plant radiation Jun Wanga,b,c,1, Jason Hiltond,e, Hermann W. Pfefferkornf, Shijun Wangg, Yi Zhangh, Jiri Beki, Josef Pšenickaˇ j, Leyla J. Seyfullahk, and David Dilcherl,m,1 aState Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; bCenter for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; cUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China; dSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom; eBirmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom; fDepartment of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6316; gState Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China; hCollege of Paleontology, Shenyang Normal University, Key Laboratory for Evolution of Past Life in Northeast Asia, Ministry of Natural Resources, Shenyang 110034, China; iDepartment of Palaeobiology and Palaeoecology, Institute of Geology v.v.i., Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 165 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic; jCentre of Palaeobiodiversity, West Bohemian Museum in Plzen, 301 36 Plzen, Czech Republic; kDepartment of Paleontology, Geozentrum, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria; lIndiana Geological and Water Survey, Bloomington, IN 47404; and mDepartment of Geology and Atmospheric Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 Contributed by David Dilcher, September 10, 2020 (sent for review July 2, 2020; reviewed by Melanie Devore and Gregory J.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Relationships of Angiosperms To
    Relationships of Angiosperms to 1 Other Seed Plants Seed plants are of fundamental importance both evolution- all gymnosperms (living and extinct) together are not arily and ecologically. They dominate terrestrial landscapes, monophyletic. Importantly, several fossil lineages, Cayto- and the seed has played a central role in agriculture and hu- niales, Bennettitales, Pentoxylales, and Glossopteridales man history. There are fi ve extant lineages of seed plants: (glossopterids), have been proposed as putative close rela- angiosperms, cycads, conifers, gnetophytes, and Ginkgo. tives of the angiosperms based on phylogenetic analyses These fi ve groups have usually been treated as distinct (e.g., Crane 1985; Rothwell and Serbet 1994; reviewed in phyla — Magnoliophyta (or Anthophyta), Cycadophyta, Doyle 2006, 2008, 2012; Friis et al. 2011). These fossil lin- Co ni fe ro phyta, Gnetophyta, and Ginkgophyta, respec- eages, sometimes referred to as the para-angiophytes, will tively. Cantino et al. (2007) used the following “rank- free” therefore be covered in more detail later in this chapter. An- names (see Chapter 12): Angiospermae, Cycadophyta, other fossil lineage, the corystosperms, has been proposed Coniferae, Gnetophyta, and Ginkgo. Of these, the angio- as a possible angiosperm ancestor as part of the “mostly sperms are by far the most diverse, with ~14,000 genera male hypothesis” (Frohlich and Parker 2000), but as re- and perhaps as many as 350,000 (The Plant List 2010) to viewed here, corystosperms usually do not appear as close 400,000 (Govaerts 2001) species. The conifers, with ap- angiosperm relatives in phylogenetic trees. proximately 70 genera and nearly 600 species, are the sec- The seed plants represent an ancient radiation, with ond largest group of living seed plants.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cycadofilicales, They Formed the Dominant Fossil Plants During Palaeozoic Age
    UNIT-2 Cycadeoideales Introduction to Cycadeoideales: The Cycadofilicales, they formed the dominant fossil plants during Palaeozoic age. The Cycadofilicales have of course definite affinities with the cycads on one side and ferns on the other, but they had no cones either in the male or in the female part of the plants, so some workers think that the Cycadofilicales form a separate group quite distinct from gymnosperms. In the Mesozoic times, however, we came across fossils plants which had cones and were definitely related to gymnosperms. So in Mesozoic the Cycadofilicales were replaced by true gymnosperms which formed strobili, and the seeds had a naked dicotyledonous embryo in them. The ovule or the seed was never enclosed in closed carpel. The Mesozoic gymnosperms can be placed into two separate groups: 1. Cycadeoidale (Bennettitales) and 2. Cycadales. Pant (1957) has placed the cycadeiods in a distinct class, the Cycadeoideopsida of the division Cycadophyta. The Cycadeoideales (Bennettitales) first appeared in the Permian they reached their highest range during the Jurassic period, after which they disappeared altogether. The second group Cycadales had a world-wide distribution during the Mesozoic period Majority of them had altogether disappeared; only a few types have been left which are confined to special parts of the East. The present day cycads are only the remnants of very large dyeing out group, i.e., they are sometimes described as living fossils, because they are on their way to extinction. The Cycadeoideales (Bennettitales) were very much like the cycads in their general appearance, and as the Mesozoic had these two prominent groups of gymnosperms, so that period sometimes described as age of cycads.
    [Show full text]
  • Dieciousness in Thalictrum Dasycarpum.*
    The Ohio Journal of Science Vol. XX DECEMBER, 1919 No. 2 DIECIOUSNESS IN THALICTRUM DASYCARPUM.* JOHN H. SCHAFFNER. In the search for further light on the nature of dieciousness, the writer made some observations on Thalictrum, as repre- senting a genus of plants quite low in the evolutionary scale yet showing considerable specialization. The Ranunculaceae, among which the meadow-rues are included, are normally bisporan- giate plants and the lower species of Thalictrum are also bisporangiate, as for example, Thalictrum clavatum DC. and Thalictrum alpinum L. Thalictrum clavatum shows plainly that the ancestral type of the genus had the normal lateral stamens and terminal carpels so characteristic of Anthophyta, altho in the specialized species as will appear below there is no definite position for either stamens or carpels in the inter- mediate type of flowers. Thalictrum'dsycarpum Fisch. and Lall. and Thalictrum revolutum DC. are among the diecious species with many intermediate individuals, while Thalictrum dioicum L. and other species are normally strictly diecious. In Thalictrum dasycarpum there is no apparent sexual dimorphism between the staminate and carpellate plants except in the sporophylls themselves and even the stamens and carpels have an unusual similarity of appearance before the filaments elongate. A considerable per cent of the individuals are apparently strictly staminate or carpellate and from these extremes, inter- mediates grade through all degrees up to individuals which pro- duce nearly an equal number of stamens and carpels. Next to a pure staminate plant may be one completely staminate except that one flower has one normal carpel. A single sporophyll with female expression among thousands with male expression! Or there may be an individual having all carpellate flowers but one of these flowers has a single stamen.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introduction to the Mesozoic Palaeobotany Auður Agla Óladóttir
    An Introduction to the Mesozoic Palaeobotany Auður Agla Óladóttir The Mesozoic age was a time of great changes, not only in animals but also in the terrestrial vegetation. The Mesozoic flora was the vegetation eaten by the dinosaurs, other reptiles and mammal herbivores during this Era. New genus and new plants, e.g. gymnosperms, first appeared in their current recognizable forms. Ferns had already appeared in Palaeozoic but their diversity and spread increased in the Mesozoic. Conifers, cycads and the living fossil ginkgo dominated and made up the forests. Angiosperms and flowers also appeared in Mesozoic and began to diversify and take over from the other plants. This article expounds the main characteristic features of the Mesozoic terrestrial vegetation. It follows the evolution of the flora in chronological order and points out the most dominating plants, and the appearance of new genera. Before the Mesozoic Era, in the Cambrian others went through reduction of Era, many land plants had made their numbers. Lycopod trees for example, that appearance and put their mark on the dominated the coal-forming swamps in environment on Earth. The land plants do the Carboniferous Period, horsetails, that not appear to have undergone such a is a single genus of homosporpus vascular dramatic mass extinction like the plants and cordaite trees, that looked very terrestrial animals at the end of the similar to conifers but became extinct Palaeozoic Era. Ferns, carboniferous probably in the Triassic Period. Among pteridosperms (seed ferns), lycopsides plants that increased but were still and horsetails had already appeared but abundant in the end of Permian, and when come to the Mesozoic, the flora and beginning of Triassic, are ferns and seed fauna changed in many different ways.
    [Show full text]
  • Gnetophyta. Class and Ordinal Rank, Respectively
    Pan-Coniferae P. D. Cantino, M. J. Donoghue, and J. A. Doyle in P.D. Cantino et al. (2007): E20 [J. A. Doyle, P. D. Cantino, and M. J. Donoghue], converted clade name Registration Number: 77 Diagnostic Apomorphies: Based on a phy- logenetic tree that included Gnetophyta Definition: The total clade of the crown clade within Coniferae, Doyle (2006: Fig. 11) listed Coniferae. This is a crown-based total-clade the following synapomorphies for the clade definition. Abbreviated definition: otal V of labeled "Conifers" (including Emporia but not Coniferae. Cordaitales and corresponding roughly to Pan- Coniferae as defined here): leaves with a single Etymology: From the Greek pan- or pantos (all, vein (modified to several-veined within some the whole), indicating that the name refers to groups such as Agathis and Nageia), compound a total clade, and Coniferae (see entry in this female strobili but simple male strobili, bilateral volume for erymology), the name of the corre- (dorsiventral) symmetry in ovuliferous short sponding crown clade. shoots (modified into cone scales in extant taxa), inverted ovules, and sarcotesta absent or Reference Phylogeny: The reference phylogeny uniseriate. Of these, the sarcotesta character is Doyle (2006: Fig. 8). is questionable because it is unclear whether a sarcotesta is present or absent in the immature Composition: Coniferae (this volume) and all ovules of Emporia (Mapes and Rothwell, 1984). extinct plants that share more recent ancestry with Coniferae than with any other extant seed Synonyms: The names Pinopsida,
    [Show full text]
  • Iop Newsletter 119
    IOP NEWSLETTER 119 June 2019 CONTENTS Letter from the president Thank you Hans Kerp First announcement: IOP Student Travel Award IPC/IOPC 2020 In memoriam: Sidney (Sid) R. Ash (1928–2019) In memoriam: Professor David J. Batten (1943–2019) Professor David J Batten – unfinished projects and scientific materials In memoriam: Phil Holmes (1965–2019) Collection Spotlight: The Field Museum Upcoming meetings IOP Logo: The evolution of plant architecture (© by A. R. Hemsley) 1 Letter from the president Dear Members, In this newsletter we are happy to provide updates and announcements concerning the next quadrennial IOP Conference to be held in Prague, September 12–19 2020. Please find herein the call for symposium themes, due August 31, 2019. We also announce here the availability of IOP-sponsored travel awards to be made available to students attending the conference. To be eligible, students should become members of IOP (what a bargain---still just 10 dollars per year). This has been a sad time for us with the death of several prominent paleobotanists. Herein are obituaries for Sid Ash, David Batten and Phillip Holmes. We also received news that Manfred Barthel, Berlin, Germany (†06.06.2019), Tom Phillips, Illinois, USA (†14.07.2018), and Philippe Gerrienne, Liège, Belgium passed away. There is also some good news. I’m happy to note that new paleobotanical positions have been filled recently—Kelly Matsunaga, Assistant Professor at University of Kansas, Az (Ashley) Klymiuk, Collection Manager in Paleobotany at Field Museum of Natural History; Michael Donovan, Collection Manager in Paleobotany at Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Eva-Maria Sadowski, Postdoctoral researcher in Paleobotany at Museum of Natural History Berlin.
    [Show full text]
  • Key Concepts -- Lecture 10 (Origin of Angiosperms, Part 1) IB 168 Spring 2009
    Key concepts -- Lecture 10 (Origin of angiosperms, part 1) IB 168 Spring 2009 What derived characteristics unite the angiosperms? Flowers?? (= stobili or cones of congested sporophylls, usually bisexual); flower-like strobili occur in other (extinct) groups of uncertain relationship to angiosperms (e.g., Bennettitales). Clearly derived features of angiosperms: - Carpels - megasporophylls that are infolded and enclose the ovules (immature seeds) Provide protection to ovules (from physical & biotic environment). - Stigmatic pollen germination - germination on stigma rather than directly on ovule Allows for greater selectivity of reproductive partners by maternal parent. - Reduced gametophytes (even more so than in gymnosperms) - Microgametophytes (= pollen tubes) -- Only 3-celled at maturity; a tube cell + 2 sperm cells Megagametophytes (in most angiosperms, a 7-celled, 8-nucleate "embryo sac") - Endosperm A nutritive tissue that develops from a second fertilization event -- one of the two sperms from the pollen tube unites with two (polar) nuclei of megagametophyte (the other sperm unites with the egg). Involvement of both sperms in fusions with different cells of the megagametophyte is called double fertilization. Unlike other seed plants, angiosperms delay investment in nutritive tissue for the embryo until fertilization is assured (and make a relatively minor investment in each gametophyte compared to gymnosperms). Darwin's abominable mystery The mystery was how to account for what appeared to be a sudden appearance of modern families of angiosperms in the Cretaceous. Transitional fossils appeared to be absent. - Today, still no evidence of verifiable angiosperm fossils before early Cretaceous (Archaefructus described a few years ago as a Jurassic angiosperm but proved to be misdated -- actually from early Cretaceous).
    [Show full text]
  • Exceptionally Well-Preserved Early Cretaceous Leaves of Nilssoniopteris from Central Mongolia
    Acta Palaeobotanica 58(2): 135–157, 2018 e-ISSN 2082-0259 DOI: 10.2478/acpa-2018-0016 ISSN 0001-6594 Exceptionally well-preserved Early Cretaceous leaves of Nilssoniopteris from central Mongolia FABIANY HERRERA1,5,*, GONGLE SHI2, GOMBOSUREN TSOLMON3, NIIDEN ICHINNOROV 3, MASAMICHI TAKAHASHI4, PETER R. CRANE5,6 and PATRICK S. HERENDEEN1 1 Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, Illinois 60022 USA; e-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] 2 State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 People’s Republic of China; e-mail: [email protected] 3 Institute of Paleontology and Geology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar-51, Mongolia; e-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] 4 Department of Environmental Sciences, Niigata University, Ikarashi, Nishi-ku, Niigata 950-2181 Japan; e-mail: [email protected] 5 Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, Virginia 20184 USA 6 School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511 USA; e-mail: [email protected] Received 20 June 2018; accepted for publication 25 October 2018 ABSTRACT. Two new Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) species of fossil bennettitalean leaves are described from central Mongolia and assigned to the genus Nilssoniopteris. Nilssoniopteris tomentosa F.Herrera, G.Shi, Tsolmon, Ichinnorov, Takahashi, P.R.Crane, et Herend. sp. nov., isolated from bulk sediment samples collected for mesofossils in the Tevshiingovi Formation at the Tevshiin Govi opencast coal mine, is distinctive in having a dense, well-developed indumentum composed of branched, flattened multicellular trichomes on the abaxial leaf surface.
    [Show full text]
  • Flora of the Late Triassic
    Chapter 13 Flora of the Late Triassic Evelyn Kustatscher, Sidney R. Ash, Eugeny Karasev, Christian Pott, Vivi Vajda, Jianxin Yu, and Stephen McLoughlin Abstract The Triassic was a time of diversification of the global floras following the mass-extinction event at the close of the Permian, with floras of low-diversity and somewhat uniform aspect in the Early Triassic developing into complex vegetation by the Late Triassic. The Earth experienced generally hothouse conditions with low equator-to-pole temperature gradients through the Late Triassic. This was also the time of peak amalgamation of the continents to form Pangea. Consequently, many plant families and genera were widely distributed in the Late Triassic. Nevertheless, E. Kustatscher (*) Museum of Nature South Tyrol, Bindergasse 1, 39100 Bozen/Bolzano, Italy Department für Geo– und Umweltwissenschaften, Paläontologie und Geobiologie, Ludwig– Maximilians–Universität, and Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Richard–Wagner–Straße 10, 80333 Munich, Germany e-mail: [email protected] S.R. Ash Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northrop Hall, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA e-mail: [email protected] E. Karasev Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 123, Moscow 117647, Russia e-mail: [email protected] C. Pott Palaeobiology Department, Swedish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden LWL-Museum of Natural History, Westphalian State Museum and Planetarium, Sentruper Straße 285, 48161 Münster, Germany e-mail: [email protected] V. Vajda • S. McLoughlin Palaeobiology Department, Swedish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] J.
    [Show full text]