Abstract

A diverse assemblage of mosses from the Early Cretaceous Catefica mesofossil flora, Portugal, is described based on fragments of charcoalified and lignitized gametophytes and a single spore capsule. Nine different gametophyte morphologies are recognized and assigned to Sphagnopsida, Polytrichopsida and Bryopsida. None of the fossils can be included in any extant species. Four species have character combinations not known in any extant genera and are accommodated in three new genera as Chlorosphagnum cateficense gen. et sp. nov. (Sphagnales, family incertae sedis), Physcidium tortuosum gen. et sp. nov. and Physcidium simsimiae sp. nov. (Diphysciales, Diphysciaceae), and Canaliculidium fissuratum gen. et sp. nov. (Dicranales, Leucobryaceae). Three other species can be assigned to extant genera and are described here as Polytrichastrum incurvum sp. nov. (Polytrichales, Polytrichaceae), Dicranodontium minutum sp. nov. and Campylopus lusitanicus sp. nov. (both Dicranales, Leucobryaceae). One additional specimen has features suggesting affinity with Leucobryaceae but lacks characters critical for a definite generic placement. A single spore capsule is unassigned but is similar to capsules of members of the Ditrichaceae (Dicranales). All the fossil mosses recognised in the Catefica mesofossil flora are assigned to orders of extant mosses that diverged prior to the diversification of the Bryidae, the most diverse clade of living mosses. Based on extrapolations from their nearest living relatives, the Catefica mosses likely grew in more or less open environments, and in moist or wet sites that were primarily of low pH and low nutrient status.

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About forty species, including a bryophyte, ferns, conifers, Ginkgo, and over 35 angiosperms, are recognized based on compression-impression remains from the early Eocene of Horsefly, British Colombia, Canada. This flora is in the north central part of a chain of late early Eocene fossil assemblages known as floras of the “Okanagan Highlands” (= “Okanogan Highlands” in the US). These floras extend from north central British Columbia, Canada southeast to Republic, Washington, USA. The Horsefly flora shows similarities to other Eocene Okanagan Highlands floras, such as McAbee, Falkland, Thomas Ranch and Republic, but with some additional rare taxa. In the broader sense, the Horsefly flora can be compared with early and middle Eocene floras of eastern Asia and midcontinental North America, but shares fewer elements with Europe. Ginkgo, Metasequoia, Pinus, Palaeocarpinus, ulmaceous leaves and Deviacer are shared with northeastern China as well as western North American sites. Fagopsis, Macginitiea, Dipteronia, Florissantia, Sassafras and Lagokarpos also occur in other western North American Eocene floras and Koelreuteria and Jenkinsella with Eocene paleofloras of China. These comparisons demonstrate probable floristic exchange between northwestern North America and northeastern China via a Beringian route during the late early Eocene.

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A new aeduellid actinopterygian Amelangia ornata gen. et sp. nov. is described from the Lower Goldlauter Formation of the Thuringian Forest (Lower Permian, Germany). Distinguishing characters of the newly described taxon are a large dermosphenotic, an unusually large number of suborbital bones, a maxilla with a low maxillary plate, a distinct sculpture consisting of tubercles on the operculum and suboperculum, the presence of a single branchiostegal ray, and a pectoral fin with a scaly basal lobe. The preserved characters place the new genus close to the genera Aeduella and Bourbonnella. The newly described genus and species is similar to an isolated operculum and suboperculum recovered from the Lower Permian of the Krkonoše Piedmont Basin in the Bohemian Massif.

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Sucinorhagonycha carsteni sp. nov. from the Baltic amber deposits of Yantarny, Kaliningrad Region, Russia, is described and diagnosed in this paper. It is the first confirmed species of Cantharidae Cantharinae with visible female gonostyli. Until now, gonostyli were visible only in the fossil material of a species from Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber which was attributed, with doubts, to the subfamily Malthininae.

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