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Paleobotany |
2Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9 Canada; 3Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701 USA
Received for publication July 26, 2002. Accepted for publication December 12, 2002.
| ABSTRACT |
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Key Words: Barremian British Columbia Cretaceous Cyathea cranhamii sp. nov Cyatheaceae Filicales
| INTRODUCTION |
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In the present study, we describe the first evidence for anatomically preserved sori assignable to the Cyatheaceae and the oldest unequivocal cyatheaceous reproductive structures from the Early Cretaceous of western North America. The specimens are described as Cyathea cranhamii sp. nov. and demonstrate that an essentially modern species of the Cyatheaceae had evolved by the early Cretaceous.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Concretions were slabbed and the specimens serial sectioned by the well-known cellulose acetate peel technique (Joy et al., 1956
). Peels for microscopic examination and image capture were mounted on standard microscope slides with Eukitt mounting medium (O. Kindler, Freiburg, Germany). Images were captured with a Microlumina digital scanning camera (Leaf Systems, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA), and processed with Adobe Photoshop (Adobe, San Jose, California, USA). Specimens, peels, and microscope slides are housed in the University of Alberta Paleobotanical Collections (UAPC-ALTA).
| SYSTEMATICS |
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Family
Cyatheaceae Kaulfuss
Genus
Cyathea J. E. Smith
Species
Cyathea cranhamii sp. nov.
Specific diagnosis
Tree fern with two rows of superficial sori beneath narrow pinnules. Sori with vascularized receptacle and sphaeropteroid indusium with distal slit-like opening, producing about 35 sporangia. Multicellular sporangial stalks of 56 cells in cross section, capsule up to 275400 µm long, 200300 µm wide, with annulus of approximately 20 cells and about 64 spores per sporangium. Spores 4070 µm in diameter, triangular with concave interradial sides and rounded corners; arms of trilete extending three-quarters of the distance to periphery. Exospore approximately 650 nm thick; continuous perispore, with irregular sculpturing ranging from granulate/echinate to distinct rodlets.
Holotype
Specimen P13021 Hbot b, deposited in the University of Alberta Paleobotanical Collections (UAPC-ALTA) is here designated the holotype of Cyathea cranhamii (Figs. 49, 1113, 15, and 16).
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Collecting locality
Apple Bay, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Stratigraphic position and age
Longarm Formation equivalents, Early Cretaceous (Barremian).
Etymology
The specific epithet cranhamii is proposed in recognition of Gerald Cranham, Parksville, British Columbia, Canada, who generously provided numerous plant specimens for study at the University of Alberta.
Discussion
Recent molecular systematic studies reveal five clades within the Cyatheaceae that do not necessarily conform to traditionally recognized genera (Conant and Stein, 2001
). Structural characters that could allow assignment of C. cranhamii to one of the newly recognized clades are not preserved in the fossils. Therefore, we recognize the fossils as Cyathea sensu lato (s.l.) (sensu Holttum, 1963
).
| DESCRIPTION |
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Sori are delimited by a globose indusium approximately 1.3 mm diameter (Figs. 13 and 5). In longitudinal section sori are oval and vary from laterally to vertically elongated (Figs. 2 and 3). The differences probably result from a combination of distortion during fossilization and natural variation. The indusial wall ranges from one to three layers of tightly packed cells with dark contents that are shrunken away from the wall. Cells are vertically elongated and measure 2255 µm in diameter. A vertically oriented dehiscence slit extends across the distal surface and extends basally into the midregion of the indusium (Figs. 5 and 6, at arrows), and this reveals that the indusium opened into two valves. Each sorus has a basal vascularized receptacle (Figs. 2, 3, and 8) from which approximately 35 sporangial stalks radiate. Tracheids of the receptacle are barrel-shaped, 1025 µm in diameter, and display scalariform secondary wall thickenings (Fig. 9).
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Many sporangia are apparently senescent (Figs. 13) but others contain approximately 64 spores (Figs. 7 and 10). Spores are radial and trilete, with a relatively unornamented exospore and a continuous perispore (Figs. 7 and 1014). Individual spores are roughly triangular, with concave interradial sides and rounded corners (Figs. 10, 13, and 14). Measurements of 107 spores range from 40 to 70 µm in diameter (mean = 53.5 µm). The trilete suture extends approximately 3/4 of the distance to the margin of the spore (Figs. 11 and 13) and is obscured by sculpturing of the perispore (Fig. 14, at right). The exospore is approximately 650 nm thick with a smooth to scabrate surface (Figs. 11 and 15). The perispore displays irregular granulae and coarse echinae that sometimes form slender rodlets (Figs. 14 and 16).
| DISCUSSION |
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Systematic relationships among cyatheaceous ferns are the subject of ongoing discussion and debate. Although some authors have recognized as many as six genera in the family (i.e., Alsophila R. Brown, Cnemidaria Presl, Cyathea, Nephelea Tryon, Sphaeropteris Bernhardi, Trichipteris Presl) (Tryon, 1970
; Tryon and Tryon, 1982
; Tryon and Lugardon, 1990
), others have recognized four (Lellinger, 1988
), three (Domin, 1929
, 1930
), or only one (Holttum, 1963
). Some authors place all the species within the single genus Cyathea, which is subdivided into subgenera and sections that correspond to some of the genera of other authors (Kramer, 1990a
). Although recent molecular analyses by Conant and others (Conant et al., 1994
, 1995
, 1996
; Conant and Stein, 2001
) suggest that there are five clades within the family, the morphological characters needed to assign C. cranhamii to one of these clades are not preserved in the fossils. Therefore, recognition of a single genus within the Cyatheaceae is the practice we are following in this paper.
Species of Cyathea have superficial sori and display a variety of indusial morphologies (Tryon and Feldman, 1975
). Hemitelioid indusia only partly surround the base of the receptacle, whereas the other forms are radial, extending all the way around the receptacle. Among the latter, meniscoid indusia are discoid or saucer-shaped. Cyathiform indusia are somewhat deeper, forming a cup, whereas urceolate indusia envelop more than half of the sorus. The most complete indusia, the sphaeropteroid form including that of C. cranhamii, are more or less globose and completely envelop the sorus. Some sphaeropteroid indusia have a distal "umbo," whereas others have either a small irregular opening or a distal slit, such as that in C. cranhamii. Among those authors who recognize six genera of Cyatheaceae, sphaeropteroid indusia are produced by Alsophila, Cyathea, and Sphaeropteris (Tryon and Feldman, 1975
). Therefore, this character appears to occur in several groups of cyatheaceous species and is not considered to be a systematically informative character (Kramer, 1990a
).
Although there are some variations among the spores of cyatheaceous ferns, all are radial and trilete with a perispore that adheres tightly to the exospore. Large, prominent pits occur in the exospore of species assignable to the Cyathea clade (sensu Conant and Stein, 2001
), but these structures are not present in C. cranhamii. Many species including C. cranhamii have a relatively smooth exospore surface with most of the sculpturing being produced by the perispore. The rodlets and irregular granulate/echinate sculpturing of the perispore of C. cranhamii is quite similar to that seen in several species of Cyathea, Trichipteris, and Sphaeropteris, including T. costaricensis (Kuhn) Barrington and C. fulva (Mart. & Gal.) Fée. (Tryon and Lugardon, 1990
). Other species have a relatively thin and/or incomplete perispore, and most of the sculpturing is produced by the exospore.
Taxonomy among living cyatheaceous species relies heavily upon either characters of multicellular scales that occur on several organs of the plant (Tryon and Tryon, 1982
), or molecular characters (Conant and Stein, 2001
). Lack of preservation of scales on the pinnules and indusia of C. cranhamii makes determination of relationships to other species of the family difficult. At the present time, we do not know if this absence is due to the lack of production of such structures or to a lack of preservation. However, we suspect that the latter is most probable. Although C. cranhamii currently cannot be related to a particular living species or group of living species of Cyatheaceae, it does display all of the diagnostic characters found in modern species of the family. These include structure of the indusium, morphology and orientation of the sporangial annulus, number of spores per sporangium, and fine structure of the spore wall and perispore.
Cyathea cranhamii represents the first unequivocal evidence for the Cyatheaceae in Mesozoic deposits. It is also the first anatomically preserved cyatheaceous species from the fossil record to display characters of the fertile pinnules, sori, sporangia, and spores. This demonstrates that essentially modern species of Cyathea s.l. had evolved by Early Cretaceous time and complements data from compression fossils and several permineralized species of stems that suggest that the tree fern clade consists of a dicksoniaceous grade from which the Cyatheaceae clade was derived (Lantz et al., 1999
). There are additional, apparently dicksoniaceous, fern sori in the calcareous marine nodules from Apple Bay. These are currently under investigation for publication elsewhere. Together with C. cranhamii these hold great promise for improving our understanding of tree fern diversity in the Early Cretaceous and for clarifying both the sequence of character evolution and pattern of diversity among ancient representatives of the dicksoniaceous/cyatheaceous clade.
| FOOTNOTES |
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4 Author for reprint requests (tel: 780-492-5518; FAX: 780-492-9234; ruth.stockey{at}ualberta.ca
) ![]()
| LITERATURE CITED |
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Conant D. S. L. A. Raubeson D. K. Attwood S. Perera E. A. Zimmer J. A. Sweere D. B. Stein 1996 Phylogenetic and evolutionary implications of combined analysis of DNA and morphology in the Cyatheaceae. In J. M. Camus, M. Gibby, and R. J. Johns [eds.], Pteridology in perspective, 231248. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK
Conant D. S. L. A. Raubeson D. K. Attwood D. B. Stein 1995 The relationships of Papuasian Cyatheaceae to New World tree ferns. American Fern Journal 85: 328-340[CrossRef]
Conant D. S. D. B. Stein 2001 Phylogenetic and geographic relationships of the tree ferns (Cyatheaceae) on Mount Kinabalu. Sabah Parks Nature Journal 4: 25-43
Conant D. S. D. B. Stein A. E. C. Valinski P. Sudarsanam 1994 Phylogenetic implications of chloroplast DNA variation in the Cyatheaceae. I. Systematic Botany 19: 60-72
Domin K. 1929 Pteridophyta (in Czech). Nákladem
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Kramer K. U. 1990a Cyatheaceae. In K. U. Kramer and P. S. Green [eds.], The familes and genera of vascular plants, vol. 1, Pteridophytes and gymnosperms, 6974. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany
Kramer K. U. 1990b Dicksoniaceae. In K. U. Kramer and P. S. Green [eds.], The familes and genera of vascular plants, vol. 1, Pteridophytes and gymnosperms, 9499. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany
Lantz T. C. G. W. Rothwell R. A. Stockey 1999 Conantiopteris schuchmanii, gen. et sp. nov., and the role of fossils in resolving the phylogeny of Cyatheaceae s.l. Journal of Plant Research 112: 361-381[CrossRef][ISI]
Lellinger D. B. 1988 The disposition of Trichopteris (Cyatheaceae). American Fern Journal 77: 90-94[CrossRef][ISI]
Skog J. E. 2001 Biogeography of Mesozoic leptosporangiate ferns related to extant ferns. Brittonia 53: 236-269[ISI]
Tidwell W. D. S. R. Ash 1994 A review of selected Triassic to early Cretaceous ferns. Journal of Plant Research 107: 417-442[CrossRef][ISI]
Tidwell W. D. H. Nishida 1993 A new fossilized tree fern stem, Nishidacaulis burgii gen. et sp. nov., from Nebraska-South Dakota, USA. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 78: 55-67
Tryon A. F. L. J. Feldman 1975 Tree fern indusia: studies of development and diversity. Canadian Journal of Botany 53: 2260-2273
Tryon A. F. B. Lugardon 1990 Spores of the Pteridophyta. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York, USA
Tryon R. M. 1970 The classification of the Cyatheaceae. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium 200: 1-53
Tryon R. M. A. F. Tryon 1982 Ferns and allied plants. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York, USA
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