MACNBR   00242
MUSEO ARGENTINO DE CIENCIAS NATURALES "BERNARDINO RIVADAVIA"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Coniferous ovulate cones from the Lower Cretaceous of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
Autor/es:
GEORGINA M. DEL FUEYO; SERGIO ARCHANGELSKY; MAGDALENA LLORENS; RUBÉN CÚNEO
Revista:
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PLANT SCIENCES
Editorial:
The University of Chicago Press
Referencias:
Lugar: Illinois; Año: 2008 vol. 169 p. 799 - 813
ISSN:
1058-5893
Resumen:
Two types of
coniferous ovulate cones borne on leafy twigs are described from the Lower
Cretaceous Kachaike Formation in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. The fossils
are impressions and compressions with well preserved cuticles; morphology,
anatomy and ultrastructure were studied using light, scanning and transmission
microscopy. Ovulate cones were assigned to Athrotaxis ungeri (Halle)
Florin of the taxodiaceous Cupressaceae and to Kachaikestrobus acuminatus
gen. et sp. nov. of the Cheirolepidiaceae. This latter taxon is characterized
by terminal elongate cones borne on twigs with Brachyphyllum leaves,
cone scales densely and helically disposed, broad bracts with and accentuated
acuminate apex fused at their bases to eight-lobed ovuliferous dwarf-shoots
shorter than the bracts, and an epimatium covering at least one ovule which has
preserved only the outer integument and the megaspore membrane. The
ultrastructure of bract and ovuliferous dwarf-shoot cuticle is composed of
three layers. Comparisions of K. acuminatus with other
cheirolepidiaceous ovulate cones showed closest resemblance to Hirmeriella
muensteri (Schenk) Jung. These Patagonian cone scales appear to have some
of the most ancestral characters in the family. By the early Albian, A.
ungeri and K. acuminatus were part of a plant assemblage
dominated by ferns and a few subordinate angiosperms. The finding of A.
ungeri in the Kachaike Formation extends its distribution during the Lower
Cretaceous in Patagonia. These fossils also show that the taxodiaceaous
Cupressaceae and the Cheirolepidiaceae still were well represented, at that
time, in southern South America.