Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:06:16.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

21.—Morphological and Ontogenetic Reconstructions of Parka decipiens Fleming and Pachytheca Hooker from the Lower Old Red Sandstone, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

Karl J. Niklas
Karl J. Niklas
Affiliation:
The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Morphological examination of 56 specimens of Parka decipiens suggests that the thallus was dorsiventral with a many layered ventral cell-layer bearing dorsal sporangia originating from both the margin of the thallus and the underlying tissue. A disc-like holdfast is present, suggesting that at maturity Parka was attached to some substrate. Mathematical simulations of growth suggest that sporangia were produced by lateral proliferation of cells, while simulations of the frequency of cell dichotomy indicate that the order of sporangial packing on the dorsal surface is consistent with an underlying pseudoparenchyma. Latex replicas indicate the presence of filament dichotomy and corroborate to some extent the presence of a pseudoparenchyma. Intercalated, anticlinal cell divisions are demonstrated mathematically. Ontogenetic reconstructions of Parka suggest a similarity to the extant green algal genus Coleochaete. Growth stages of Coleochaete in their early stages of development are similar to the fossil Pachytheca, while mathematical and chemical comparison of Pachytheca with those of Parka suggest either a phylogenetic or ontogentic interpretation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 69 , Issue 21 , 1976 , pp. 483 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References to Literature

Armstrong, M. and Paterson, I. B., 1970. The Lower Old Red Sandstone of the Strathmore Region. Rep. Inst. Geol. Sci. 70/12, 23 pp.Google Scholar
Arnold, C. A., 1947. An Introduction to Paleobotany. New York: McGraw-Hill, 433 pp.Google Scholar
Dawson, J. W., 1882. Notes of Prototaxites and Pachytheca discovered by Dr Hicks in the Denbighshire Grits of Corwen, North Wales. Q. Jl Geol. Soc. Lond., 38, 103–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, J. W. and Penhallow, D. P., 1891. Parka decipiens. Notes on specimens from the collections of James Reid, Esq. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, 9 (IV), 3.Google Scholar
Chaloner, W. G. and Gay, M. M., 1973. Scanning electron microscopy of latex casts of fossil plant impressions. Palaeontology, 16, 645–649.Google Scholar
Don, A. W. R. and Hickling, G., 1917. On Parka decipiens. Q. Jl Geol. Soc. Lond., 71, 648–666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, J., 1831. On the occurrence of scales of vertebrated animals in the Old Red Sandstone of Fifeshire. Edinb. Jl Nat. Geog. Sci., 3, 81–86.Google Scholar
Fritsch, F. E., 1935. The Structure and Reproduction of the Algae, 1. Cambridge: C.U.P. 791 pp.Google Scholar
Hickling, G., 1908. The Old Red Sandstone of Forfarshire. Geol. Mag., 5, 396–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooker, J., 1853. On the spheroidal bodies, resembling seeds, from the Ludlow Bone Bed. Q. Jl Geol. Soc. Lond., 9, 12.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. H. and Konishi, K., 1958. Studies of Devonian Algae. Colo. Sch. Mines. Q., 53 (2), 1–114.Google Scholar
Korn, R., 1969. A stochastic approach to the development of Coleochaete. J. Theor. Biol., 24, 147–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lang, W. H., 1937. On the plant remains from the Dowtonian of England and Wales. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., B, 227, 245–291.Google Scholar
Lang, W. H., 1944. Pachytheca and some anomalous early plants (Prototaxites, Nematothallus, Parka, Foerstia, Orvillea n.g.). J. Linn. Soc. Bot., 52, 535–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantella, G. A., 1852. On the supposed fossil eggs from the Devonian rocks of Forfarshire. Q. Jl Geol. Soc. Lond., 8, 108.Google Scholar
Maslov, V. P., 1956. Calcareous fossil algae in the U.S.S.R. Acad. Nauk S.S.R. Inst. Geol. Sci., 160, 301 pp. (cf. 58–60, 90).Google Scholar
Miller, H., 1842. The Old Red Sandstone, 2nd edn. Edinburgh. 179 pp.Google Scholar
Miller, H., 1857. The Testimony of the Rocks. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Murchison, R. I., 1839. The Silurian System. London: Murray.Google Scholar
Niklas, K. J., 1976a. Chemical Examinations of some non-vascular Paleozoic Plants. Brittonia, 28: 113–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niklas, K. J., 1976b. The Chemotaxonomy of Parka decipiens from the Lower Old Red Sandstone, Scotland (U.K.). Rev.Palaeobot. Palynol 21: 202–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niklas, K. J. and Chaloner, W. G., 1976. Simulations of the ontogeny of Spongiophyton a Devonian plant. Ann. Bot. 40: 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penhallow, D. P., 1892. Additional notes on Devonian plants from Scotland. Can. Rec. Sci., 5, 1–13.Google Scholar
Powrie, J., 1864. On the fossiliferous rocks of Forfarshire and their contents. Q. Jl Geol. Sci., 20, 413–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, J. and Macnair, P., 1898. On the genera Psilophyton, Lycopodites, Zosterophyllum, and Parka decipiens of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. Their distributions and affinities. Trans. Edinb. Geol. Soc., 7, 368–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, J., Graham, W. and Macnair, P., 1897. Parka decipiens, its origin, affinities and distribution. Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasg., 11, 105–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schopf, J. M., 1957. ‘Spores’ and problematic plants commonly regarded as marine. Mem. Geol. Soc. Am., 67, 709–718.Google Scholar
Strickland, H. E., 1852. On a protruded mass of upper Ludlow rock at Hagley Park, Herefordshire. Q. Jl Geol. Soc. Lond., 8, 381–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strickland, H. E., 1853. On the distribution and organic contents of the Ludlow Bone Bed in the districts of Woolhope and May Hill. With a note on the seed-like bodies found in it (by Hooker, J.), Q. Jl Geol. Soc. Lond., 9, 8–11 (cf. Hooker, J., 1853).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westoll, T. S., 1951. The vertebrate-bearing strata of Scotland. Int. Geol. Congr., 18/11, 5–21.Google Scholar