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The possible pollen cone of the Late Triassic conifer Heidiphyllum/Telemachus (Voltziales) from Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2011

Benjamin Bomfleur ,
Rudolph Serbet ,
Edith L. Taylor  and
Thomas N. Taylor
Benjamin Bomfleur*
Affiliation:
Division of Paleobotany at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Rudolph Serbet
Affiliation:
Division of Paleobotany at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Edith L. Taylor
Affiliation:
Division of Paleobotany at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Thomas N. Taylor
Affiliation:
Division of Paleobotany at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Fossil leaves of the Voltziales, an ancestral group of conifers, rank among the most common plant fossils in the Triassic of Gondwana. Even though the foliage taxon Heidiphyllum has been known for more than 150 years, our knowledge of the reproductive organs of these conifers still remains very incomplete. Seed cones assigned to Telemachus have become increasingly well understood in recent decades, but the pollen cones belonging to these Mesozoic conifers are rare. In this contribution we describe the first compression material of a voltzialean pollen cone from Upper Triassic strata of the Transantarctic Mountains. The cone can be assigned to Switzianthus Anderson & Anderson, a genus that was previously assumed to belong to an enigmatic group of pteridosperms from the Triassic Molteno Formation of South Africa. The similarities of cuticle and pollen morphology, together with co-occurrence at all known localities, indicate that Switzianthus most probably represents the pollen organ of the ubiquitous Heidiphyllum/Telemachus plant.

Keywords

coniferophytesGondwanain situ pollenSwitzianthussystematic palaeobotanyTransantarctic Mountains
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , 12 July 2011 , pp. 379 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2011

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