Species of the Cretaceous Tree Fern Tempskya from Utah
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Faculty Publications 1992-09-01 Species of the Cretaceous tree fern Tempskya from Utah William D. Tidwell Naomi Hebbert Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub Part of the Geology Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Tidwell, William D. and Hebbert, Naomi, "Species of the Cretaceous tree fern Tempskya from Utah" (1992). Faculty Publications. 1445. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/1445 This Peer-Reviewed Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. InL 1. Plant Sci. IS3(3):SI3-S28. 1992. e 1992 by The University ofCh icago. All rights reserved . IOS8·S8931921S30 3-OO 27S02.00 SPECIES Of THE CRETACEOUS TREE flRN TEMPSKYA fROM UTAH WILLIAM D. TIDWELL' AND NAO MI HEBBERT Department o f Bo tany and Range Science. Brigham Young Unive rsity, Provo, Utah 8460 2 Nine species o f the perm ineralized stems of Tempskya were investigated from the upper lower Cre taceous Cedar Mounta in and Burro Can yon Pormauons, and the lower Upper Cretaceous Dakota For mation in central and southeastern Utah. Trmpsk}'o joflt'Sii, T. 5tichkar . and T. readii are new and art' differen tiated on the basis of the rad ial orientation of their dorsiventra l stems , their internodal lengths, the lack ofsclerenchyma in the mnerconexof T.j onesii. the three nearl y cont inuous zonesofsclerenchy ma in the inner cortex of T. stichkae, and the com pletely sclerotic inner corte x of T. 'radii. Specimens of T. ionesii and T. minor were collected in growth positiun ncar Cas tle Dale, Utah . which is the first time Tempskya has been collected in this position in North America. Thin leaves were also observed for the li~t time in Tempskya in speci mens of T. ..yomi ngt'tISt'. Tunnels containing three su es o f fecal pellets are common in tissues of stems, roots. petioles. and epidermal hairs of the false trun ks of Tempskya, ind icati ng that three different grazers fed upon these plants. Arbuscules of vesicutar-arbuscular (V-A) mycorr hiza l fungi occu r in some roots of the false trunks of T. jo ncui. Specific charac ters of Tempskya and possible environmental circumst ances under which these plants grew are reviewed. and we conclude that they grew under relatively humid conditions in swamps on t100d plains. Introduction specimens of Tempskya collected from these for mations indicate that this fern gre..... abundantly Tempskya. named by Corda (1845), is an un in this region at the time the formation s were usual tree fern which lived duri ng the Cretaceous being deposited. period. Specimens of this genus consist of false trunks composed of a dichotomous branching stem system w hich is surrounded by a thick mat Material and methods of adventitious roots. Although many well-pre Specimens of Tempskya are silicified and vary served silicifi ed specimens have been studied, in color from black to gray to red where they had many aspects of these plants remain uncertain. been weathered. Several false trunks have been Becauseof this, much speculation has surrounded collected somewhat intact, although most speci Tempskya since it was first reported by Stokes mens are represented by fragments. The majority and Webb (1824) under the name Endogenues of Tempskya specimens from Utah are well pre erosa. Since then they have been discovered at served: however, some are not. In these, either manylocalities in the Northern Hemisphere. His the stems have disintegrated, leaving cavities in torical accounts abo ut this genus have been pub the specimen, or the stem areas have been reo lished by Read and Brown (1937), Ash and Read placed .....ith white crystalline material. The spec (1976), and Hlustik (1990). imens are striking aesthetically but are inade Geographically, Tempskya is presently known quate for scientific study. only from the North ern Hemisphere, .....here it is Specimens of Tempskya have been collected in restricted generally to the Lower Cretaceous. It growth position near Castle Dale, Utah (locality occurs in England, Ireland, north ern France, Ger I), .....hich is rather unusual for these plants (fig. many, Czechoslovakia, USSR, Japan, and ca. 43 2). Specimens from the other Utah localities ap localities in the United States. Most of these lo pear to have been transported. Many have been calities in the United States are in the Rocky moved only short distances, but they were still Mountain region in such diverse areas as central collected in a horizontal position rather than a Montana, north-central and western Wyoming, vert ical or grow th position. southeastern Idaho, east-central Oregon, south Standard thin-sections and acetate peels were western Colorado, northeastern Arizona, south made of the fossils and studied with transmitted ern Nevada, northwestern and south.....estern New light. Some of those permineralized with darker Mexico, and Utah (Ash and Read 1976), Our material w ere etched in HF and studied using research on Tempskya has centered on localities reflected light microscopy. in the upper Lower Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Portions of two specimens .....ere chemically and Burro Canyon Formations, and the lo.....er macerated, and the residue of plant material, par Upper Cretaceous Dakota Form ation from cen ticularly the spores, was isolated for study, tral and southeastern Utah (fig. I). The many Dr. E, M. V. Nambudiri, University of Regina, crushed samples of the carbonaceous (coalified) 'Author for corres ponde nce and reprints. shale associated .....ith the Tempskya to - 20 mesh .\fafluscript receivedOaooer J99 J.. revisedmafluscript received and mounted the samp les as epox.y pellets for January 1991. petrographic analysis. j)J 5 ' 4 I NTER NATIO NAL J O URNAL OF PLANT SC IEN C ES Stokes (1952) were tentatively identi fied as T. minor Read and those of Kat ich (195 1) as Tempskya sp. Arnold ( 1958) mentioned observing Tempskya about 9.6 km southeast ofCasric Dale. Utah, near Salt lake City. locality I. The bed in which he saw these speci mens lies about 15.2 m below the overlying Da \ kota Formation in the Cedar Moun tain Forma tion. He tentat ively iden tified them as T. minor. r: We collected fi ve specimens in growth position from th is locality, and curators at the Utah State ; ~e Mu seum of Na tura l History collected another. Castle Dale_a> 6 T heir specimen is a 1.8 m high T. minor. Ferron ~0 Specimens of an unidentified species of Temp 170 I skya were reported by McKnight and Rigby (1963) oab from the upper port ion of the Ceda r Mountain (Burro Canyon) Formation northwest of Moab \"'e at locality 6 (fig. I). T idwell and Hebbert (1972. 191 1976) discussed the occurrence of Tempskya in 115 , the Ceda r Mountain Formation from localities Blanding 95 ........... ncar Castle Dale (locality I) and the Moab air port, Utah. In a ree valuation of the tempskyas 40 Km mentioned from this formation by Tidwell et aL ( 1976). T. jonesii rem ains a new species in this fig. I (odell map of Utah showing collecting sites for article; specimens called T. wtuteheadii are as Tempskya. I, Castle Dale locality; 2, Ferron locality; J, south signed to T. wesselii; and those tentatively re oflocalily 2; 4, Yenoweararea: S. Westwater locality: 6, Moab ferred to T. superba are here assigned to T. ..yo airport locality; 7. Blue Mesa localit y; 8. Pack Creek locali ty; and 9. Conon wood Creek locality near Blanding. mingense. Tempskya has also been noted from the Burro Canyon and Dakota Formations south west of Moab near the La Sal Mountains (locality History of investigations of 8; Read and Brown 1937; Ash and Read 1976). Utah Tempskya Specimens of Tempskya were reported from Lecclltles for Temps1cyo in Utoh the Dakota Formation in San Juan County in Nine species of Tempskya were studied from southeastern Utah by Read and Brown (1937). the Cedar Mountain, Burro Canyon. and Dakota Brown (1950) described a specimen collected by Formations in Utah (fig. I; table I). Th ese consist W.L.Stokesfrom the Dakota FormationinGrand of the three new species. T. jonesii. T. suchkae. County, Utah. as T. knowltonii. However, ac and T, readii, under consideration and six spe cording to Katich (1952), a reassessment of the cies, T. minor, T. zetierii. T. wesselii. T. wyom specimen led Brown to consider placing it in a ingense. T. grandis. and T. superba. described new species, but this was never accomplished . previously either from Utah or elsewhere in the Temp skya was collected during investigations of western United States. the fossil plant s of the Dakota Formation in the locA LITY I. The Castle Dale locality occurs area (Tidwell cr al. 1967; Rushforth and Tidwell 9.6 km southeast of Castle Dale, Utah, near the 1968; Rushfortb 1971). Amateur collectors have con fl uence of Cottonwood Creek and Huntington also collected a large number of Tempskya spec Creek which forms the San Rafael River (SWI/4, imens in the Yellowcat area (locality 4) in the SElf4 , S~ . 21, T 19S. R9E). Thi s is ncar Katich's Cedar Mountain Formation a few miles to the (195 1, 1952) locality and the site where Tschudy west of where Stokes collected his specimen. et al. (1984;USGS KCM D5785) collected the Tempskya has been investigated from the Ce palynomorphs for their study. The Cedar Moun dar Mountain Formation ncar the type locality tain Formation at this locality is composed of ofthi s formation at Cedar Mountain.