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Macrofossil Evidence For Pleuromeialean Lycophytes From the Triassic of Antarctica
Bomfleur, Benjamin Krings, Michael Taylor, Edith L. Taylor, Thomas N.
Bomfleur, Benjamin
Krings, Michael
Taylor, Edith L.
Taylor, Thomas N.
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Abstract
Triassic microfloras from Antarctica contain abundant lycophyte spores. However, macrofossils of this group of plants
are missing, and thus the precise affinities of the spore producers remain unknown. Macrofossil remains of a pleuro−
meialean lycophyte, including an incomplete strobilus, isolated sporophylls and sporangia, as well as abundant mega−
spores, occur on a single rock sample from the central Transantarctic Mountains. Also occurring on the same surface is
Mesenteriophyllum serratum, a strap−shaped leaf morphotype of uncertain affinity previously known only from the
Kyrgyz Republic and the Taimyr Peninsula. The leaves display alternating transverse ridges and depressions that are sim−
ilar to structures seen in compressed leaves of various isoetalean lycophytes. Leaf morphology and anatomy, together
with the close association of the other lycophyte remains, suggest that M. serratum represents a pleuromeialean lycophyte
leaf, which was part of the same plant that produced the sporophylls and sporangia. Sedimentological data indicate that
this lycophyte inhabited a swampy, probably coal−forming overbank environment, which contrasts with the assumed
xero− to halophytic habit of many other pleuromeialean lycophytes.
Description
This is the publisher's version, which is also available electronically from: http://dx.doi.org/10.4202/app.2010.0022
Date
2010
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Publisher
Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Paleobiologii
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Keywords
Isoetales, Pleuromeia, Mesenteriophyllum, Phytogeography, Palaeoecology, Air chambers, Transantarctic mountains, Antarctica
Citation
Bomfleur, B., Krings, M., Taylor, E., and Taylor, T. 2010. Macrofossil
Evidence for Pleuromeialean Lycophytes From the Triassic of Antarctica.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56(1): 195-203.