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Welwitschiaceae from the Lower Cretaceous of northeastern Brazil¹

²Paleobotany and Palynology Laboratory, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7800 USA; ³Laboratório de Geociências of the Universidade Guarulhos and Instituto de Geociências of the Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; ⁴Laboratoire de Paléobotanique et Paléoécologie, UMR 5143, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France

ABSTRACT

Welwitschiaceae, a family in the Gnetales, is known today from only one extant species, Welwitschia mirabilis. This species is distributed in the Namibian desert, along the western coast of southern Africa, about 10 km inland from the coast. Very little is known about the fossil record of this family. Lower Cretaceous megafossils of various organs, assigned to Welwitschiaceae, are presented here. These fossils include young stems with paired cotyledons attached (Welwitschiella austroamericana n. gen. et sp.), isolated leaves (Welwitschiophyllum brasiliense n. gen. et sp.), and axes bearing male cones (Welwitschiostrobus murili n. gen. et sp.). They were collected in the Crato Formation, which is dated by palynomorphs and ostracods as Late Aptian (114 to 112 million years ago). These sediments are exposed in the Araripe Basin of northeastern Brazil. This study brings together new information of the megafossil record of Welwitschia-like plants and also reports of pollen said to be similar to that of Welwitschia from Lower Cretaceous sediments.

Key Words: Aptian • Brazil • Crato Formation • Cretaceous • Gnetales • Welwitschia

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