New insights into the heterosporous lycopsid Changxingia from the Upper Devonian Wutong Formation of Zhejiang Province, China

Autor(en)
De-Ming Wang, Min Qin, Mei-Cen Meng, Le Liu, David-Kay Ferguson
Abstrakt

A heterosporous lycopsid plant is described from the Upper Devonian (Famennian) Wutong Formation, Changxing County, northern Zhejiang Province, China. The plant is known for its terminal and many detached megasporangiate strobili, most of which do not have sporophylls preserved. Some megasporangiate strobili are closely associated with a vegetative axis bearing leaf cushions and with a mass of microspores. Because of the monosporangiate strobili, the present lycopsid belongs to the Dichostrobiles of the Isoёtales sensu lato. This lycopsid conforms to Changxingia in the vegetative leaves, leaf cushions (including leaf scar and ligule pit), some parts of the megasporophyll (pedicel, heel and lamina), the megasporangium and the megaspores, although the branching pattern of axes, the arrangement and other parts of megasporophyll are still unknown. The fossils are described as Changxingia sp., and this genus is expanded with character of microspore. Hence, the previous and present data indicate that the earliest lycopsids with monosporangiate strobili from the Upper Devonian of China are consistent in Lagenicula megaspores with gula and Lycospora microspores with equatorial cingulum. In contrast, the Carboniferous lycopsids with monosporangiate strobili in Euramerica and Cathaysia show great diversification of both megaspores and microspores.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Paläontologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Peking University, China Science Publishing and Media Ltd, China University of Mining and Technology
Journal
Plant Systematics and Evolution
Band
303
Seiten
11–21
Anzahl der Seiten
11
ISSN
0378-2697
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-016-1348-9
Publikationsdatum
01-2017
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
105117 Paläobotanik
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant Science
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/00c19590-9fb2-4663-8c52-2373c12df63d