The diversity of Australian Mesozoic bennettitopsid reproductive organs

McLoughlin, Stephen; Pott, Christian; Sobbe, Ian H.

doi:10.1007/s12549-017-0286-z

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Careful analysis of the cuticles of cycad-like leaves from the Permian of China and Jordan resulted in the recognition of three new species of early Bennettitales, a group of which the oldest putative representatives have so far been reported from the Middle Triassic (Wachtler and Van Konijnenburgvan Cittert, 2000;Kustatscher and Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2005;McLoughlin et al, 2018). Nilssoniopteris shanxiensis from the Cisuralian of Shanxi is the oldest known bona fide bennettitalean.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas cycads have haplocheilic stomata consisting of two guard cells surrounded by a ring of subsidiary cells like in most pteridosperms and conifers, the syndetocheilic stomata of the bennettitaleans and the guard and subsidiary cells all developed from a single initial cell, giving the stomatal apparati a completely different appearance (Thomas and Bancroft, 1913;Florin, 1933). The oldest bennettitaleans were reported from the Middle Triassic (Wachtler and Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2000;Kustatscher and Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2005;McLoughlin et al, 2018) but these records are all based on macromorphological characters only. Although Cycadales and Bennettitales are usually classified within the Cycadophytes, their relationship is still unclear and little is known about the early history of these two groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bennettitalean Leaves From the Permian of Equatorial Pangea—The Early Radiation of an Iconic Mesozoic Gymnosperm Group

et al. 2021

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Bennettitaleans are an extinct group of gymnosperms that are among the most iconic plants of Earth’s vegetation during the Mesozoic Era. The sudden appearance and rise to dominance of the Bennettitales during the Triassic remains a mystery. Leaf fossils similar to typical bennettitalean foliage occur in late Paleozoic deposits worldwide, but bennettitalean foliage can be identified with certainty only in case the fossils are sufficiently well-preserved to show epidermal features. So far, the characteristic stomatal architecture of the group has never been systematically documented in these putative Paleozoic remains. Here, we present well-preserved bennettitalean leaves from Permian deposits in two widely separated regions of equatorial Pangea. Two species of cuticle-bearing leaf compressions from the late Permian Umm Irna Formation, Jordan, are here formally described as Pterophyllum pottii Bomfleur et Kerp sp. nov. and Nilssoniopteris jogiana Blomenkemper et Abu Hamad sp. nov. Moreover, bulk maceration of samples from the Umm Irna Formation yielded six additional types of dispersed bennettitalean cuticles that are here informally described. In addition, the Cisuralian (early Permian) uppermost part of the Upper Shihhotse Formation exposed at the Palougou section in Shanxi Province, China, has yielded the oldest unambiguous bennettitalean fossils known to date; they consist of fragments of entire-margined leaves with well-preserved cuticles that we assign to Nilssoniopteris shanxiensis Bäumer, Backer et Wang sp. nov. Unlike the characteristic puzzle-patterned cuticles typical of many Jurassic and Cretaceous bennettites, the cuticles of these Permian bennettitalean remains show non-sinuous anticlinal walls, greater variety in stomatal orientation, and rare occurrence of transversely divided subsidiary cells—features that have until now almost exclusively been documented from the hitherto oldest cuticle-bearing Triassic bennettitalean material. Finally, the taxonomic richness, disjunct distribution, and broad variety in macro- and micromorphological features in these Permian bennettitalean remains lead us to suspect that the origin of the group will date back still further in time, and might in fact coincide with very early occurrences of Bennettitales-like foliage from the Pennsylvanian and Cisuralian, such as Pterophyllum cottaeanum, P. eratum, or P. grandeuryi.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bennettitalean Leaves From the Permian of Equatorial Pangea—The Early Radiation of an Iconic Mesozoic Gymnosperm Group

et al. 2021

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“…Building on previous surveys of the relatively little-studied Australian Jurassic floras (Turner et al 2009;McLoughlin et al 2015), McLoughlin et al (2018) systematically describe the range of bennettitopsid reproductive structures from Mesozoic strata of that continent. They formally define five new species of Williamsonia, one new species of Cycadolepis, and propose the new combination Fredlindia moretonensis.…”

Section: The Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An introduction to Jurassic biodiversity and terrestrialenvironments

Slater

Kustatscher

Vajda

2018

Palaeobio Palaeoenv

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“…1, D and I), as well as dispersed cuticle pieces, all showing the syndetocheilic type of stomata ( Fig. 1, J to M) diagnostic of Bennettitales (17,21).…”

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confidence: 95%

“…Bennettitales is an extinct group of seed plants with a cycadlike growth habit and compound flowerlike reproductive organs. These plants have been known mainly from the Mesozoic, the earliest record being from the Middle Triassic (21). Because of their sophisticated mode of sexual reproduction, which in many ways resembled that of modern angiosperms, some authors consider Bennettitales to be basal members of the group of plants that gave rise to crown-group angiosperms more than 100 million years later (22,23).…”

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confidence: 99%

A hidden cradle of plant evolution in Permian tropical lowlands

Blomenkemper

Kerp

Hamad

et al. 2018

Science

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The latitudinal biodiversity gradient today has deep roots in the evolutionary history of Earth’s biota over geologic time. In the marine realm, earliest fossil occurrences at low latitudes reveal a tropical cradle for many animal groups. However, the terrestrial fossil record—especially from drier environments that are thought to drive evolutionary innovation—is sparse. We present mixed plant-fossil assemblages from Permian equatorial lowlands in present-day Jordan that harbor precocious records of three major seed-plant lineages that all became dominant during the Mesozoic, including the oldest representative of any living conifer family. These finds offer a glimpse of the early evolutionary origins of modern plant groups in disturbance-prone tropical habitats that are usually hidden from observation.

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The diversity of Australian Mesozoic bennettitopsid reproductive organs

Cited by 20 publications

References 110 publications

Bennettitalean Leaves From the Permian of Equatorial Pangea—The Early Radiation of an Iconic Mesozoic Gymnosperm Group

Bennettitalean Leaves From the Permian of Equatorial Pangea—The Early Radiation of an Iconic Mesozoic Gymnosperm Group

An introduction to Jurassic biodiversity and terrestrialenvironments

A hidden cradle of plant evolution in Permian tropical lowlands

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