Fossil evidence of eupolypod ferns in the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar

Regalado, Ledis; Schmidt, Alexander R.; Krings, Michael; Bechteler, Julia; Schneider, Harald und Heinrichs, Jochen (2018): Fossil evidence of eupolypod ferns in the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar. In: Plant Systematics and Evolution, Bd. 304, Nr. 1: S. 1-13

Abstract

Divergence time estimates based on DNA sequence variation of extant species suggest that eupolypod ferns were diverse already in the Cretaceous;however, fossil evidence to support this assumption remains exceedingly rare. Holttumopteris burmensis gen. et sp. nov., a fertile fern foliage fragment preserved in a piece of Albian-Cenomanian Burmese amber from Myanmar, is characterized by divided fertile leaves with catadromous, free lateral veins. Sporangia possess a vertical annulus interrupted by the sporangium stalk and contain monolete spores with a lophate perine. The sporangia occur clustered in discrete sori overarched by a laterally attached, reniform indusium. Reconstruction of ancestral character states suggests affinities of Holttumopteris to the Thelypteridaceae;however, several taxonomically relevant characters are not preserved. This discovery is nevertheless important because H. burmensis represents the first unequivocal fossil of a representative of the eupolypods from the middle Cretaceous.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Geowissenschaften > Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften
• Fakultätsübergreifende Einrichtungen: GeoBio-Center
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 500 Naturwissenschaften ; 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 550 Geowissenschaften, Geologie
• ISSN: 0378-2697
• Sprache: Englisch