Mesozoic Sciadopitys-like leaves with observations on four species from the jurassic of andøya, Northern Norway, and Emendation of Sciadopityoides sveshnikova

doi:10.1016/0034-6667(87)90027-3

Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

Volume 51, Issues 1–3, January 1987, Pages 145-168

https://doi.org/10.1016/0034-6667(87)90027-3 Get rights and content

Abstract

Sveshnikova's rejection (1981) of the genus Sciadopitytes (Goeppert et Menge) Florin for Sciadopitys-like leaves is critically discussed. Her institution of the genus Sciadopityoides to replace Sciadopitytes is accepted, although three of the 14 Mesozoic species she referred to the new genus are considered to be invalidly published (S. hallei Florin, S. scanica Florin, and S. scoticaFlorin). The remaining 11 Mesozoic species of Sciadopitys-like leaves are reviewed and new observations are presented for four of these, three of which are known only from Upper Jurassic sediments of Andøya, northern Norway. Formerly neglected characters are recognized which allow for an emended diagnosis of Sciadopityoides and for two species to be transferred from thatgenus to Sciadopitys (S. lagerheimii Johansson and S. macrophylla Florin).

Three species of Sciadopityoides are considered to form a more closely related nucleus within the genus: the type species S. uralensis (Dorofeev et Sveshnikova) Sveshnikova, S. cramer (Halle) Sveshnikova, and S. variabilis (Bose) Sveshnikova. The remaining species appear to form a more heterogeneous group but are difficult to compare because of inadequate information. Because of its present heterogeneous content, Sciadopityoides remains a form-genus.

Species diversity of Sciadopitys-like leaves appears to be highest in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous. None has so far been recorded in sediments older than the Upper Jurassic, and records are restricted to north of 40° N latitude.

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Data on fossil coniferous leaves from the Middle Jurassic of the Stoilensky open mine in the Belgorod Region, Russia were obtained for the first time. These conifers are represented by the leaves of Mirovia, Podocarpophyllum, Elatocladus and Pityophyllum. A new species, Mirovia oskolica, sp. nov., is described based on the study of the morphology and epidermal features. Leaves of this species are characterized by the presence of thick resin ducts, stomata arranged in one stomatal zone, the short epidermal cells of the adaxial leaf side, the absence of papillae on the ordinary epidermal cells, and the rare presence of small proximal papillae on some subsidiary cells of the stomata. In addition, we have found leaves similar to the type leaves of M. eximia from the Middle Jurassic of the Kursk Region, Russia. We determine linear leaf fragments with longitudinally orientated stomata arranged in two stomatal bands and with narrow guard cells as Podocarpophyllum kazachstanicum, originally described from the Lower Jurassic of Kazakhstan. Besides these remains, there are numerous fragments of the narrower linear leaves with an acute apex, two stomatal bands and a very thin cuticle. These leaves are assigned to Pityophyllum sp. The only found sessile lanceolate leaf and several dispersed cuticle fragments with obliquely to transversely oriented stomata in the stomatal bands are determined as Elatocladus sp.
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Citation Excerpt :
S020321–1, S020321–2. Diagnosis — see Manum, 1987, p. 157; Manum et al., 1991, p. 244. Description of the leaf cuticular membrane ultrastructure.
The ultrastructure of the leaf cuticle of Mesozoic conifers of the family Miroviaceae – Mirovia Reymanówna – was studied for the first time. The leaf cuticles of three Mirovia species from different localities and ages were investigated: Mirovia kazachstanica Nosova et Kiritchkova from the Lower Jurassic of the Mangyshlak Mountains (Kazakhstan), Mirovia macrophylla (Florin) Nosova from the Middle Jurassic of the Andøya Island (northern Norway) and Mirovia sibirica (Samylina) Bose et Manum from the Lower Cretaceous of the Lena River Basin (Russia). The data obtained from TEM analysis allow to give a detailed description of the cuticle structure of both the abaxial and adaxial surfaces. The cuticular membrane of Mirovia leaves is made up of the cuticle proper, composed of an outer polylamellate layer and an inner granular and homogeneous layer, and a cuticular fibrillate layer. The cuticle ultrastructures of the studied Mirovia species were compared with each other, and also with other fossil and extant conifers.
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The latest addition to the genus, Sciadopityoides greeboana Watson, Lydon et Harrison (Watson et al., 2001), was later shown to fit the diagnosis of Mirovia and is now referred to as Mirovia greeboana (Watson, Lydon et Harrison) Nosova (Nosova and Wcisło-Luraniec, 2007; Nosova, 2013). Specimens of Sciadopityoides have been reported from the Middle Jurassic of West Ukraine, the Early Cretaceous of the east of Arctic Canada, West Greenland, Spitsbergen and the north of East Siberia, and from the Late Cretaceous of the Urals and the north of East Siberia (Fig. 1; Florin 1922; Bose, 1955; Dorofeev and Sveshnikova, 1959; Doludenko, 1963; Sveshnikova, 1963, 1981; Abramova, 1984; Kiritchkova, 1985; Manum, 1987; Bose and Manum, 1990, 1991; Nosova, 2014). In addition to isolated leaves, occasional fragments of leafless shoots, bearing spirally arranged circular to oval leaf scars, are known in association with leaves of Sciadopityoides crameri (Bose and Manum, 1990: p. 15, pl.
The paper documents in detail the morphological and epidermal characters of the leaves of the Mesozoic conifer genus Sciadopityoides Sveshnikova based on the investigation of specimens from the north of East Siberia, the Urals, Ukraine and Greenland. For the first time, the leaf epidermal structures in this genus were studied with the scanning electron and the laser confocal microscopes. The species originally described as Sciadopitys arctica Abramova and Sciadopitys swetlanae Kiritchkova are shown to be identical with, respectively, Sciadopityoides crameri (Heer) Sveshnikova and Sciadopityoides brevifolia (Abramova) Hvalj. Emended descriptions are provided for Sciadopityoides ukrainensis (Doludenko) Sveshnikova and S. brevifolia; a diagnosis, missing in the original publication, is given and a lectotype is selected for S. brevifolia and an emended diagnosis is suggested for S. ukrainensis.
Early Cretaceous vegetation and climate change at high latitude: Palynological evidence from Isachsen Formation, Arctic Canada
2015, Cretaceous Research
Citation Excerpt :
is endemic to Japan where it is common in mixed conifer (e.g., Tsuga and Chamaecyparis) and angiosperm forest communities that include filicopsids, lycopodiophytes, and bryophytes growing in cool and moist environments. Sciadopitys plant macrofossils are found in abundance in Middle to Upper Jurassic marine deposits from the northern hemisphere with remains of Gingko spp. and Pinus spp. (Manum, 1987; Vakhrameev, 1991), suggesting Sciadopitys co-existed with other gymnosperms in the Mesozoic. Cupressaceae-Taxaceae and allies represent the majority of the gymnosperm pollen in Isachsen Formation samples.
Quantitative palynology of the marginal marine and deltaic-fluvial Isachsen Formation of the Sverdrup Basin, Canadian Arctic, provides insight into high latitude climate during much of the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian to early Aptian). Detrended Correspondence Analysis of main pollen and spore taxa is used to derive three ecological groupings influenced by moisture and disturbance based on the botanical affinities of palynomorphs: 1) a mixed coniferous assemblage containing both lowland and upland components; 2) a conifer-filicopsid community that likely grew in dynamic lowland habitats; and, 3) a mature dry lowland community composed of Cheirolepidiaceans. Stratigraphic changes in the relative abundance of pollen and spore taxa reflect climate variability in this polar region during the ∼20 Mya history of the Isachsen Formation. The late Valanginian was relatively cool and moist and promoted lowland conifer-filicopsid communities. Warming in the Hauterivian resulted in the expansion coniferous communities in well-drained or arid hinterlands. A return to relatively cool and moist conditions in the Barremian resulted in the expansion of mixed lowland communities. This work demonstrates the utility of a multivariate statistical approach to palynology to provide insight into the composition and dynamics of ecosystems and climate of high latitude regions during the Early Cretaceous.
A new species of Mirovia (Coniferales, Miroviaceae) from the Lower Cretaceous of the Iberian Ranges (Spain)
2002, Cretaceous Research
The Lower–Middle Albian coaly clay bed of the Escucha Formation, which is exposed at Rubielos de Mora (eastern Iberian Ranges, Spain), contains a diverse fossil plant assemblage. Among the taxa present in this layer, Mirovia gothanii Gomez sp. nov. differs from other species of the genus by its greater leaf length, margins typically overhanging the depressed stomatal groove, a single short, blunt, papilla borne by each subsidiary cell, non-stomatal cells inside the groove and margins, and a higher number of resin ducts in the mesophyll. Morphological study of the well-preserved cuticles demonstrates that the species also occurs in Lower Cretaceous coals of Santa Maria de Meià (Pyrenees, Spain) where Gothan (1954) described it as Sciadopitytes sp. Both localities constitute the southernmost extent of the genus in Laurasia when the family was likely to have reached its climax in terms of abundance and diversity.
Tritaenia Maegdefrau et Rudolf, Mesozoic 'Sciadopitys-like' leaves in mass accumulations
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The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous genus Tritaenia Maegdefrau et Rudolf 1969 is problematic because of: (1) missing authentic material of its type species, T. linkii (Roemer 1839) Maegdefrau et Rudolf; and (2) Watson and Harrison's (1998) synonymization of T. linkii with Pseudotorellia heterophylla Watson. This paper: (1) rectifies the status of T. linkii on the basis of newly recovered specimens carrying the original author's authentication; and (2) gives the basis for rejecting Watson and Harrison's claim that T. linkii and T. crassa (Seward) Bose et Manum 1991 represent linear leaves of the heterophyllous taxon Pseudotorellia heterophylla. The three species of Tritaenia known to date (T. crassa, T. linkii, T. scotica) are reviewed, and the genus is compared with other Mesozoic so-called ‘Sciadopitys-like’ hypostomatic leaves with a median stomatal zone, many of which occur in mass accumulations such as T. linkii. Deciduousness is indicated for T. linkii and T. crassa by their occurrence in mass accumulations and the possession of well-developed abscission scars. Known mass accumulations of fossil foliage are reviewed and their implications for palaeoenvironmental interpretations discussed.

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Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

Abstract

References (33)

Jurassic-Cretaceous biostratigraphy of Norway, with comments on the British Rasenia cymodoce Zone

Palaeontology

Sciadopitys variabilis n. sp. from the Arctic of Canada

Norsk Geol. Tidsskr.

Leaf-cuticle and other plant microfossils from the Mesozoic rocks of Andøya, Norway

Palaeobotanist

Sciadopitophyllum canadense gen. et sp. nov.: a new conifer from western Alberta

Am. J. Bot.

The Mesozoic rocks of Andøy, northern Norway

Nor. Geol. Unders.

On a find of remains of the genus Sciadopitys S. et Z. in Upper Cretaceous deposits of the Urals.

Dokl. Akad. Nauk.S.S.S.R.

A new species of Sciadopitytes from the Jurassic of western Ukraine

Paleontol. Zh.

Int. Geol. Rev.

The Late Jurassic floras of southwest Eurasia

Tr. Geol. Inst. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R.

Paleoceanic Reconstructions 160-0 Ma

On the geological history of the Sciadopitineae

Sven. Bot. Tidskr.

The distribution of cofiner and taxad genera in time and space

Acta Horti Bergiani

Die Flora des Bernsteins und ihre Beziehungen zur Flora der Tertiärformation und der Gegenwart

Danzig

Andøyas juraflora. En kutikulaundersøkelse

Some xerophytic leaf-structures in Mesozoic plants

Geol. Fören. Stockholm Förh.

Presidential address. The inflation of taxonomy

The Yorkshire Jurassic flora. V. Coniferales

Cited by (24)

First data on coniferous leaves from the Middle Jurassic of the Belgorod Region, Russia

First data on the ultrastructure of the leaf cuticle of a Mesozoic conifer, Mirovia Reymanówna (Miroviaceae)

New data on the Mesozoic conifer genus Sciadopityoides Sveshnikova (Miroviaceae)

Early Cretaceous vegetation and climate change at high latitude: Palynological evidence from Isachsen Formation, Arctic Canada

A new species of Mirovia (Coniferales, Miroviaceae) from the Lower Cretaceous of the Iberian Ranges (Spain)

Tritaenia Maegdefrau et Rudolf, Mesozoic 'Sciadopitys-like' leaves in mass accumulations