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The Lower Devonian Rhynie chert contains abundant fossil evidence of cyanobacteria. However, only a few of these fossils have been described. A newly discovered type of cyanobacterial filament is 22 to > 30 µm wide, and thus substantially larger than all filamentous cyanobacteria previously known from the Rhynie chert. Trichomes are uniseriate, composed of short, discoid cells not constricted at...
Desmiophyllum harrisii was described from the Hettangian of Poland based on specimens yielding dispersed leaf fragments only, albeit with cuticle. Here, we record a shoot with attached leaves assignable to Desmiophyllum harrisii from the Rhaetian of Bavaria, besides a few specimens with dispersed leaf fragments. The leaves yielded also a thin and fragmentary cuticle with stomata arranged in characteristic...
Cryptokerpia sarlaccophora gen. et sp. nov., an enigmatic type of gymnosperm leaf, is described based on dispersed cuticles retrieved from bulk-macerated samples of the Umm Irna Formation (Upper Permian) of the Dead Sea Region, Jordan. The most prominent diagnostic feature of the new genus is that stomatal pores are sunken deep into the epidermis at the bottom of multi-cellular stomatal crypts that...
The fossil liverwort Naiadita lanceolata is described here from lacustrine deposits occurring intercalated in the Albertibank complex of the Lower Keuper, Erfurt Formation (Ladinian, Middle Triassic) of Schleerieth, northern Bavaria, Germany. The specimens represent the stratigraphically oldest records of this taxon so far. Leafy gametophytic plants are preserved as impression-compression fossils...
Fossil floras have been recovered from a unique deposit of early Permian age in North-Central Texas. The site, Kola Switch, preserves three distinct floras in different lithofacies, in a succession from a single outcrop. The sedimentary environment appears to be a floodplain channel fill of primarily siltstones and claystones. The lowermost flora, preserved in a kaolinitic siltstone, indicates active...
Cuticles have been a key part of palaeobotanical research since the mid-19th Century. Recently, cuticular research has moved beyond morphological traits to incorporate the chemical signature of modern and fossil cuticles, with the aim of using this as a taxonomic and classification tool. For this approach to work, cuticle chemistry would have to maintain a strong taxonomic signal, with a limited input...
The Osmundaceae family is the sister group to all other extant leptosporangiate ferns. Its rich fossil record has enabled detailed reconstructions of the evolutionary history of the group. Fossil evidence for today’s Southern Hemisphere subtribe Todeinae, however, has been difficult to accumulate, with only two unambiguous fossil occurrences of modern Todea. Here, we describe a silicified Todea stem...
Wood boring represents a common feeding and survival strategy in several lineages of beetles. The larvae of wood-boring beetles hatch and excavate tunnels in wood during their development. The origin and evolutionary history of this life habit, however, remain poorly understood to date, as the fossil record is scarce. We present new silicified conifer wood specimens containing complex borings from...
A new fossil meso-flora consisting of dispersed cuticles has been discovered within the Upper Member of the Middle Triassic (late Anisian) Mukheiris Formation at the eastern rim of the Dead Sea in Jordan. The assemblage consists of a number of different morpho-types of cuticles which can all be assigned to gymnosperms. Cuticles which can be identified as the corystospermalean taxon Dicroidium are...
Compsopteris wongii (T. Halle) Zalessky is an enigmatic foliage type with unknown systematic affinities endemic to the Permian Cathaysia flora. Here we describe the frond morphology and epidermal anatomy of C. wongii based on material from the Palougou Section in Shanxi Province, China. Fronds are petiolate (i.e., possess a naked stipe), are once pinnate, and have alethopteroid, linear-oblong pinnules...
Twenty-seven specimens from the Carnian flora of Lunz am See, Austria, belonging to Dioonitocarpidium, a genus to accommodate cycadalean megasporophylls, have been examined. In agreement with older reports, two clearly separable species have been identified, viz. Dioonitocarpidium titzei (Krasser 1917) Pott, comb. nov., and Dioonitocarpidium liliensternii Kräusel 1953, emend. Pott. Both species required...
A relatively neglected element of the biota of the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert Lagerstätte are filamentous green algae exceptionally preserved by silicification. Palynological processing of sediments associated with the cherts has yielded palynomorphs that we also interpret as the remains of filamentous green algae and one such taxon is described herein. Cells occur individually, in masses or joined...
The morphology and anatomy of a new zygopterid fern are described from the Middle Pennsylvanian (Bolsovian) of Flöha, SE Germany. The fossils occur as allochthonous remains within the basal Schweddey Ignimbrite, which preserves a diverse wetland plant community of cordaitaleans, ferns, pteridosperms, calamitaleans, and lycophytes. Pinnae of Alloiopteris loecsei sp. nov. exhibit a combined carbonized...
Isolated capsule-like reproductive organs from the upper Permian of the Southern Alps, NE Italy, are described as Brinkia gen. nov. Two species have been distinguished, i.e. Brinkia kerpiana sp. nov. and B. cortianensis sp. nov. Brinkia capsules resemble in gross morphology single valves of the Leptostrobus-type, Mesozoic reproductive organs belonging to the Czekanowskiales. A czekanowskialean affinity...
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