Fossil Flora of Middle Jurassic Grojec Clays (Southern Poland)
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Acta Palaeobotanica 55(2): 149–181, 2015 DOI: 10.1515/acpa-2015-0013 Fossil flora of Middle Jurassic Grojec clays (southern Poland). Raciborski’s original material reinvestigated and supplemented. I. Sphenophytes AGATA JARZYNKA1 and GRZEGORZ PACYNA2 1 W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland; e-mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Palaeobotany and Palaeoherbarium, Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian University, Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland; e-mail: [email protected] Received 16 October 2015; accepted for publication 24 November 2015 ABSTRACT. Sphenopsid remains from Grojec clays (Grojec, Poręba, Mirów) collected and described by Racibor- ski in 1894 are re-examined for the first time and supplemented by Raciborski’s unpublished material housed at the Jagiellonian University (Institute of Botany) and by Stur’s preliminarily described material stored at the Geological Survey of Austria. Three species of Equisetum created by Raciborski (Equisetum renaulti, E. remo tum, E. blandum) are now attributed to the common Jurassic species Equisetites lateralis, and the earlier- undescribed Equisetites cf. columnaris is recognised. The occurrence of Neocalamites lehmannianus (originally described by Raciborski as Schizoneura hoerensis) has been confirmed from Grojec. The material that Raciborski referred to this species seems to be heterogeneous, and some specimens are now removed to the new proposed species Neocalamites grojecensis Jarzynka et Pacyna sp. nov. The new species is diagnosed by the following features: only a few prominent ribs present on shoot, leaf scars relatively large and ellipsoidal, numerous free leaves, vascular bundles alternate at node. Possibly the new species derives from Neocalamites lehmannianus or at least is closely related to it. Part of the poorly preserved remains can be determined only as Neocalamites sp. Another species created by Raciborski, Phyllotheca (?) leptoderma, is based on poorly preserved type specimens. Some of the unpublished specimens stored at the Jagiellonian University (Institute of Botany) correspond to Raciborski’s description, but considering the poor preservation of the original material and the not very realistic published illustrations of this species, they rather should be regarded as indeterminate cortical fragments of Neocalamites lehmannianus and/or badly preserved external cortical surfaces of the new species Neocalamites grojecensis. Phyllotheca (?) leptoderma should be considered a nomen dubium. KEYWORDS: Equisetites, Neocalamites, Sphenophyta, Grojec clays, Middle Jurassic, Poland INTRODUCTION The Mesozoic is an interesting era in the described from Jurassic strata and referred evolutionary history of sphenopsids (Halle to the extinct genus Equisetites are very simi- 1908, Osborn et al. 2000, Bomfleur et al. 2013, lar to modern Equisetum (Harris 1961, Gould Elgorriaga et al. 2015). Remnants of huge 1968). The most common Mesozoic genera woody Carboniferous and Permian calamites of Equisetales in the Northern Hemisphere persist in the form of the much smaller Neoca are Equisetites Sternberg, Equisetum Lin- lamites. On the other hand, the oldest repre- naeus, Neocalamites Halle, and Schizoneura sentatives of the modern genus Equisetum are Schimper et Mougeot (Osborn et al. 2000, first encountered in the Jurassic (Halle 1908, Barbacka 2009). In the Triassic and Juras- Elgorriaga et al. 2015). Species frequently sic, sphenophytes were present in almost all 150 of Europe: the United Kingdom (e.g. Phillips 1980). A recent revision of macroremains from 1829, Lindley & Hutton 1836, Seward 1900, Grojec was carried out as part of PhD thesis Stopes 1907, Harris 1961, Morton 1965, Har- work (Jarzynka 2012), which will be published ris & Rest 1966, Van Konijnenburg-van Cit- successively as a series of papers. tert & Morgans 1999, Van Konijnenburg-van Raciborski (1894) created four new equi- Cittert 2008), Italy (e.g. Krasser 1912, 1913, setalean species, three of which belong to the 1920, Wesley 1966, Scanu et al. 2012, 2015), genus Equisetum (Equisetum renaulti, E. remo France (e.g. Lemoigne 1968, Philippe et al. tum, and E. blandum) and one referred to 1998), Romania (e.g. Semaka & Georgescu Phyllotheca (?) leptoderma. Besides those, he 1967, Popa 2009), Norway (Bruun Christensen reported Schizoneura hoerensis from Grojec. 1995), Poland (e.g. Raciborski 1894, Barbacka The new species proposed by Raciborski were et al. 2010, Jarzynka 2012, Pacyna 2013, 2014, discussed later but no one examined those spec- Barbacka et al. 2014a), Hungary (Barbacka imens again (Halle 1908, Harris 1931, 1961). 2009, 2011), Germany (e.g. Schenk 1867, The aim of the present work was to re- Weber 1968), Switzerland (Van Konijnenburg- examine Raciborski`s published material. The van Cittert & Meyer 1996), Sweden (e.g. Halle data are supplemented by other unpublished 1908, Johansson 1922, Lundblad 1950, Pott specimens from the same locality. Plant fos- & McLoughlin 2011), Greenland (Harris 1926, sils from the Grojec area are stored in three 1931, 1937), and Serbia (Djordjević-Milutinović collections: 1160 specimens in the Geological 2010; see also Barbacka et al. 2014b). Museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences The sphenophytes we studied originate (Polish Academy of Sciences, Research Centre from the Middle Jurassic of the Grojec area in Kraków), collected by Marian Raciborski in (southern Poland). The most significant sites 1888 from 11 sites (Raciborski 1894); 484 spec- where kaolinite clays occur are Grojec, Poręba, imens in the Geologische Bundesanstalt (Geo- and Mirów (Fig. 1). This flora has been investi- logical Survey of Austria) in Vienna, Austria, gated since the 19th century. The first prelimi- gathered by Franciszek Bartonec and passed nary description was given by Stur (1888), who to Dionys Stur, who published a preliminary discussed 10 taxa. The majority of the speci- report in 1888 (Stur 1888); and 130 specimens mens from the Grojec clays are original fossils in the Department of Palaeobotany and Palae- described by Raciborski (1894) in a monograph oherbarium (Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian covering 72 taxa, which was planned as the University), probably collected by Raciborski first volume of a series. The monograph “The himself but not described in his monograph fossil flora of fire-proof Kraków clays. Part (Raciborski 1894). I Cryptogamae – Archaegoniatae” was written in Polish, while the diagnoses of new species were written in Latin. Unfortunately, fur- MATERIAL AND METHODS ther volumes never appeared. Since the tax- th onomy followed the 19 -century system, seed The studied material consists of 103 fragments of ferns and cycads were included in ferns. Also, sphenopsid shoots, diaphragms, and leaves, preserved probably due to its preservation state, a twig in fine-grained light or dark grey kaolinite clay, rarely of Brachyphyllum was given as a lycophyte. in fine-grained sandstone with a significant admixture of clay, preserved as impressions, casts and moulds; Nevertheless, ferns predominate and are the organic matter is not preserved. The fossils originate group most differentiated in this assemblage from localities where Grojec clays were mined in the (Raciborski 1894, Reymanówna 1963). 19th century (Grojec, Poręba, Mirów; Fig. 1). The col- After Raciborski (1894), investigations of lected specimens belonging to Sphenophyta include the Grojec flora focused on morphological and 30 fragments of Equisetites lateralis, 8 fragments of Equisetites cf. columnaris, 23 fragments of Neocalam taxonomical aspects of the ferns (Harris 1977, ites lehmannianus, 19 fragments of N. grojecensis, Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert 1996), and some 17 fragments of Neocalamites sp., and 6 fragments of new taxa from other clay layers and sites were Phyllotheca (?) leptoderma. described by Reymanówna (1962, 1963, 1968, Forty-nine samples are stored in the Geological 1970, 1973, 1977, 1985), Wcisło-Luraniec (1985, Museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences, Pol- ish Academy of Sciences, Research Centre in Kraków, 1989), and Nosova & Wcisło-Luraniec (2007). coll. acronym ZNG PAN A-III-12. Twelve samples are Pollen grains and megaspores were also stud- stored in the Geologische Bundesanstalt (Geological ied (Oszast 1957, Ichas 1986, Marcinkiewicz Survey of Austria) in Vienna, Austria, coll. acronym 151 19°35´ 19°40 E´ 50°10´ N Czatkowice KRZESZOWICE WARSAW KRAKÓW Grojec 50°05´ 50°05´ N 19°33´ E Poręba-Żegoty 50°04´ N 19°34´ E Mirów 50°02´ N Brodła 19°31´ E Wisła Ratowa 5 km 50°00´ N Fig. 1. Location of the investigated area and more significant sites with occurrence of fireproof clays (after Kozłowski 1957 and Nosova & Wcisło-Luraniec 2007, modified) GBA 2011/051. Forty-two samples are stored in the High and Ukrainian Shield) to the east, the Department of Palaeobotany and Palaeoherbarium, Bohemian Massif and Sudety–Silesia Land to Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian University, coll. acro- the west, and the pre-Carpathian Landmass to nym KRA-PALEO 105. Specimen numbers and collection acronyms were the south (Fig. 2) (Dadlez 1989, Ziegler 1990). assigned to these collections many years after Raci- The Polish Basin or Polish Trough was formed borski’s monograph. This caused us problems in by a transgression that started during the identifying which specimens had been described and Early Aalenian. At this time the Kraków area illustrated in the monograph, because Raciborski did was a narrow, elongated peninsula, oriented not use another