Abstract

A new kind of fin-winged fruit is recognized from lacustrine shales of the early Eocene Tepee Trail Formation of northwestern Wyoming and from the middle Eocene Clarno Formation of central Oregon, USA. The fruits are obovate with five thick lateral wings, borne on a thick pedicel and bearing scars of hypogynous perianth and disk. The fruit surface is covered with small circular dots interpreted as glands. This combination of characters leads us to infer affinities with the Rutaceae, although no identical modern genus is known. We establish the new genus and species, Quinquala obovata.

Key words

winged fruits, Tertiary, Wyoming, Oregon, Clarno Formation, Tepee Trail Formation

Abstract

A new temnospondyl, Korkonterpeton kalnense gen. et sp. nov., is described on the basis of an almost complete specimen from the lover Permian Prosečné Formation of the Czech Krkonoše Piedmont Basin. The exceptional preservation of the holotype allows a detailed description of the cranial and postcranial characters: Korkonterpeton kalnense gen. et sp. nov. is characterized by the presence of vomerine fangs located anteriorly to the posterior choana, much longer than wide tabulars – as long as the supratemporals, a deeply concave posterior margin of the skull table, extraordinarily elongated exoccipitals, anteriorly widened pterygoids and a parasphenoid cultriform process swollen at its mid-length. In order to clarify the relationship between this new taxon and Intasuchus silvicola Konzhukova, 1956 from the lower Permian (late Kungurian) of the Russian Inta Basin, the latter is also redescribed here: Intasuchus silvicola exhibits a lacrimal entering the septomaxilla, a widened jugal, a posterolaterally widened interpterygoid vacuity, a subtemporal window elongated anteriorly up to the anterior orbital region, an elongated basipterygoid ramus which is as long as the orbit width, a vomer with a parachoanal tooth row, and an ectopterygoid of about the same length as the palatine. The description of Korkonterpeton kalnense gen. et sp. nov. and the revision of Intasuchus silvicola complete our knowledge on the origin and evolution of early stereospondylomorph temnospondyls during the lower Permian.

Key words

Korkonterpeton kalnense gen. et sp. nov., Krkonoše Piedmont Basin, Bohemian Massif, lower Permian, Intasuchus silvicola, anatomy, relationships

Abstract

The first record of the seymouriamorph stem amniote Discosauriscus from the Krkonoše Piedmont Basin (the Czech Republic) is described. The specimen is identified as D. pulcherrimus on the basis of the following features which are absent in D. austriacus: 1) the pointed tip of the ventrolateral process of the postorbital lies anteriorly to the tip of the wedge-shaped dorsomedial process of the jugal; and 2) the rows of small denticles diverge anteromedially and anterolaterally from the midwidth of the ventral surface of the palatal ramus of the pterygoid. This new record increases our knowledge of the occurrence of this seymouriamorph in the Permo-Carboniferous basins of Europe.

Key words

Seymouriamorpha, Discosauriscidae, skeleton, lower Permian, the Czech Republic

Abstract

The late middle Miocene (MN 8) sediments at Nebisuyu, in the southwestern extremity of the Gelibolu Peninsula, Turkey, yielded remains of a large individual of Listriodon splendens: a skull lacking the premaxillae but containing both cheek tooth rows, and a detached left maxilla fragment containing a canine. The material evidently represents a male individual on the basis of the large dimensions of the canine, an inference borne out by the presence of a horn-like protuberance on the thickened frontal bones. The dentition is typical of the large “subspecies” Listriodon splendens major Roman, 1907. The presence of an ossicone suggests that head-to-head combat was an aspect of the behaviour of Listriodon, just as it is in several extant suid taxa. The Nebisuyu discovery extends the geographic distribution of the subspecies well to the east of its previously known range.

Key words

Listriodontinae, biogeography, behaviour, sexual selection, ossicone

Abstract

The paper considers a new species of gleicheniacean fern Tumidopteris astra Naugolnykh sp. nov. from the Lower Permian (Kungurian) and the Middle Permian (Roadian) deposits of the Pechora coal-basin, Russia. The new species is characterized both by macromorphology of the fertile and sterile pinnules and micromorphology of the sori and sporangia. Morphology of the most closely related leptosporangiate ferns is discussed.

Key words

ferns, Permian, new taxa, morphology, sori, Angaraland, evolution

Abstract

Three new genera, Atlantocarpus, Lambertiflora and Mugideiriflora, are described from the Early Cretaceous of North America and Portugal based on floral structures with multicarpellate and apocarpous gynoecia that have been studied using scanning electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy. Lambertiflora and Mugideiriflora have numerous perianth parts in several series, as well as many stamens and many carpels borne on a short conical receptacle. Atlantocarpus has many carpels arranged spirally on an elongated receptacle. Perianth and stamens are not preserved in Atlantocarpus, but scars of two sizes at the base of the receptacle indicate the presence of several series of tepals and stamens. Phylogenetic assessment of the three new genera indicates close relationships with members of extant Austrobaileyales, which is also favoured by the apparently ascidiate carpels of Atlantocarpus. However, the phylogenetic signal is not strong and the fossils also share many features with magnoliid angiosperms. Fully secure resolution of their relationships is hampered by lack of information of critical floral features in the fossil material, the constellation of likely plesiomorphic characters that they exhibit, and inadequate knowledge of character homologies and character evolution among extant taxa. There is also the broader concern about whether phylogenetic patterns can be reliably inferred for the earliest phases of angiosperm evolution based solely on a depauperate assemblage of extant taxa given extensive extinction over the last 100 million years. The new genera add to growing evidence of diverse extinct angiosperms with multiparted flowers during the Early Cretaceous that have a variety of relationships to extant ANA-grade angiosperms and magnoliids.

Key words

apocarpous, Cretaceous, early angiosperms, fossil flowers, multiparted, Potomac Group, SRXTM, synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy

Abstract

A recently recovered site of plant macrofossils, Ludvíkovice, in the České středohoří Mts. is situated on Sokolí vrch hill, belonging to the Děčín Formation (radiometrically dated to 30.8–24.7 Ma), according to regional stratigraphy. The flora has yielded a fern, Rumohra recentior, and several angiosperms, but no conifers. The prevailing foliage is preserved without cuticles. Noteworthy are records of Daphnogene cinnamomifolia, Laurophyllum cf. acutimontanum, Platanus neptuni, Sloanea artocarpites, Carya fragiliformis / C. quadrangula, Alnus rhenana, Trigonobalanopsis rhamnoides, Eotrigonobalanus furcinervis and cf. Quercus sp. Several foliage specimens of dicots could not be identified to species level, i.e., Leguminophyllum sp., Pungiphyllum cf. cruciatum and Dicotylophyllum sp. div. The fossil plant assemblage of Ludvíkovice corresponds to zonal mesophytic vegetation accompanied by riparian elements. This is corroborated by the Integrated Plant Record vegetation analysis, which reconstructs a zonal broad-leaved evergreen forest similar to the living broad-leaved evergreen sclerophyllous forest from Southern Hunan and Northern Guangxi in SE China. The vegetation thrived under a humid climate characterized by average values of MAT (14.6–24.1 °C), WMMT (24.7–28.3 °C), CMMT (2.2–18.8 °C) and MAP (979–1724 mm). The fossil flora of Ludvíkovice is similar in composition to the floras of Markvartice, Veselíčko, also from the Oligocene Děčín Formation of the České středohoří Mts. and the Hrazený hill.

Key words

fossil, leaves, fruit, morphology, vegetation, climate, North Bohemia, Palaeogene

Abstract

Nilssonia mirovanae sp. nov. is described from the Late Cretaceous Cenomanian of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin. It comes from the best-exposed portion of the Peruc-Korycany Formation, in the Pecínov quarry, west of Prague, the Czech Republic. Although preserved only as a fragment of a pinna, it clearly shows haplocheilic stomata. In this paper, we compare N. mirovanae with Pseudoctenis babinensis J.Kvaček from the same horizon. These two cycads have similar adaptations for surviving water stress: thick cuticles and sunken stomata, characteristic features among gymnosperms indicating adaptation to xeromorphic plants, cuticle analysis, Late Cretaceousdrought.

Key words

xeromorphic plants, cuticle analysis, Late Cretaceous

Abstract

Turkey is known for the wealth of fossil suids found in deposits of middle Miocene, late Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene levels but material of this family from early Miocene and Palaeogene deposits is rare in the country, one of the few published occurrences being from Şemsettin (Kumartaş Formation, MN 4, Çankiri-Çorum Basin). For this reason, it is interesting to record the presence of small suid remains in the Soma Formation at Sabuncubeli (Manisa, SW Anatolia) in deposits correlated to MN 3 (early Miocene) and thus the earliest known Turkish members of the family. The upper and lower teeth are herein attributed to a new genus and species (Prolistriodon smyrnensis) of Listriodontinae because, in a nascent way, they show a suite of derived morphological features such as upper central incisors with apical sulci, and upper molars with lingual precrista, found in listriodonts but not in Kubanochoerinae, Palaeochoerinae, Tetracondontinae, Hyotheriinae, Namachoerinae, Cainochoerinae or Suinae.

Key words

Suidae, Turkey, early Miocene, Artiodactyla, Listriodontinae, Prolistriodon smyrnensis gen. et sp. nov., derived characters, folivory, omnivory