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Methods for distinguishing carbonized specimens of the presumed cephalopod aptychus Sidetes (Spathiocaris) from the plant Protosalvinia (Foerstia)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2016
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The purpose of this note is to point out the similarities between Protosalvinia (Foerstia) and Sidetes (Spathiocaris) and to discuss characters that can be used to distinguish the two taxa. Protosalvinia Clarke, 1885 (Figure 1.1-1.4), also commonly referred to by the junior subjective synonym Foerstia, is a plant fossil that is frequently noted as occurring in Upper Devonian black shale sequences of North America. This taxon has been of great interest to stratigraphers, paleoecologists, plant taxonomists, and plant morphologists over the years (see, for example, Winslow, 1962, p. 7, p. 22, fig. 3; Barron and Ettensohn, 1981, p. 30-31; Matthews, 1983; and Romankiw et al., 1988). Most workers in recent years have considered Protosalvinia to be a marine alga, but there is also evidence for a land plant affinity (Romankiw et al., 1988).
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