Two new species of the pinnate microsporophyll Pramelreuthia from the upper Triassic of the southwestern United States

Abstract

Two new species of the enigmatic gymnosperm microsporophyll Pramelreuthia, found in the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation at five localities in the southwestern United States, provide significant new evidence on key morphological characters of the genus and extend its known geographical range. These new fossils also demonstrate that the genus was polytypic and reveal the plant megafossil sources for several common and geographically widespread dispersed Upper Triassic microfossil taxa. The genus Pramelreuthia, which until this study was known only from a single specimen from the Upper Triassic of Austria, is a planar pinnate structure consisting of a slender naked axis bearing stalked synangia in opposite to subopposite pairs. Synangia of all three species of Pramelreuthia are oval to subrectangular in lateral view and are composed of two adpressed flattened valves each of which contains up to 20 or more elongate, subcylindrical, tapered sporangia that bear nonstriate bisaccate pollen. Pramelreuthia yazzi sp. nov. is slightly smaller than the type species P. haberfelneri, and its synangia contain pollen generally similar in morphology and size to several species of the dispersed pollen taxon Pityosporites, including P. chinleana, P. oldhamensis, and P. devolvens. Pramelreuthia dubielii sp. nov. is much larger than the other two species; its synangia contain pollen similar to the dispersed pollen species Protodiploxypinus americus.

Paleontology of the Bears Ears National Monument: history of exploration and designation of the monument

“…85-86). Many of these specimens were subsequently described in more detail by Ash (1975aAsh ( ,b, 1977Ash ( , 2001Ash et al, 1982;Ash and Litwin, 1996 (Isachsen, 1954;Isachsen and Evensen, 1956;Isachsen et al, 1955;Weir and Puffett, 1960) discovered several sites in the Church Rock Member (see Martz et al, 2014) preserving articulated skeletons of multiple species of actinopterygian fish and the coelacanth Chinlea ; these specimens were described by Schaeffer (1967).…”

Williamsonia carolinensis sp. nov. and Associated Eoginkgoites Foliage from the Upper Triassic Pekin Formation, North Carolina: Implications for Early Evolution in the Williamsoniaceae (Bennettitales)

“…Several additional genera constitute early representatives of the Williamsoniaceae or Bennettitales such as Haitingeria Krasser, Pramelreuthia Krasser, Bennettistemon Harris, Vardekloeftia Harris, Leguminanthus Kräusel and Schaarschmidt, and Lunzia Krasser (Krasser 1917(Krasser , 1919Harris 1932;Kräusel and Schaarschmidt 1966;Ash and Litwin 1996;Weber 2008;Pott et al 2010a), the affinities of which are not unequivocally 1 Author for correspondence; e-mail: christian.pott@nrm.se. resolved.…”