Lepidopteris

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Lepidopteris
Temporal range: Middle Permian–Early Jurassic
Lepidopteris madagascariensis.tif
Lepidopteris madagascariensis leaf, Early Triassic Newport Formation, Bungan Head, New South Wales, Australia.
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Order: Peltaspermales
Family: Peltaspermaceae
Genus: Lepidopteris
Schimper 1869
Species
  • Lepidopteris stuttgardiensis(Jaeger) Schimper 1869 (type)
  • Lepidopteris callipteroides (Carpentier) Retallack 2002
  • Lepidopteris haizeri Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris heterolateralis Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris martinsii(Kurtze)Townrow 1960
  • Lepidopteris microcellularis Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris madagascariensisCarpentier 1935
  • Lepidopteris ottonis (Goeppert) Schimper 1869
  • Lepidopteris remota (Goeppert) Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris scassoi Elgorriaga, Escapa & Cúneo 2019
  • Lepidopteris stormbergensis (Seward) Townrow 1956 [1]

Lepidopteris ("scaly fern") is a form genus for leaves of Peltaspermaceae, an extinct family of seed plants, which lived from around 260 to 190 million years ago, from the Late Permian to Early Jurassic. Fossils of the genus have been found across both hemispheres. Nine species are currently recognized. [2] [3] Lepidopteris was a common and widespread seed fern, which survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event but was largely wiped out by the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Lepidopteris callipteroides is especially common between the first two episodes of the Permian-Triassic extinction event, [4] and L. ottonis forms a comparable acme zone immediately before the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. [5] Lepidopteris would persist into the Early Jurassic in Patagonia, represented by the species Lepidopteris scassoi. [6]

Contents

Description

Whole plant reconstruction of Lepidopteris ottonis with Antevsia zeilleri pollen organs, from the Late Triassic of Europe Lepidopteris life restoration.jpg
Whole plant reconstruction of Lepidopteris ottonis with Antevsia zeilleri pollen organs, from the Late Triassic of Europe

In the form generic system of paleobotany Lepidopteris is used only for leaves, which are fern-like with pinnules attached to the rachis as well as the pinnae. The cuticle of the leaves is thick and has a distinctive cuticular structure with stomatal opening overhung by papillae. This structure has been used to link the fossil leaves with well-preserved reproductive structures in the same deposits. The ovules are commonly arranged in peltate structures which have been used to assign Lepidopteris to the Order Peltaspermales. Not all leaf species are associated with reproductive material, but well-established associations include the following.

Distribution and species

Lepidopteris was geographically widespread and ranged from Late Permian to Late Triassic but individual species had more restricted geographic extent and shorter stratigraphic ranges, as seen in the list below in stratigraphic order

Atmospheric carbon dioxide paleobarometer

The cuticular structure of Lepidopteris is comparable to that of modern Ginkgo , which has been used to estimate past atmospheric carbon dioxide from its stomatal index. Because Lepidopteris and Ginkgo leaves in the same South African fossil quarries have the same stomatal index, the calibration for modern Ginkgo has been used to calculate carbon dioxide levels from Late Permian and Triassic Lepidopteris leaves. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginkgoales</span> Order of plants

Ginkgoales are a gymnosperm order containing only one extant species: Ginkgo biloba, the ginkgo tree. The order has a long fossil record extending back to the Early Permian around 300 million years ago from fossils found worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cycad</span> Division of naked seeded dioecious plants

Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow slowly and have long lifespans. Because of their superficial resemblance to palms or ferns, they are sometimes mistaken for them, but they are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms (naked-seeded), meaning their unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific species of beetle. Both male and female cycads bear cones (strobili), somewhat similar to conifer cones.

<i>Glossopteris</i> Genus of extinct seed ferns

Glossopteris is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed plants known as Glossopteridales. The name Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within the framework of form genera used in paleobotany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennettitales</span> Extinct order of seed plants

Bennettitales is an extinct order of seed plants that first appeared in the Permian period and became extinct in most areas toward the end of the Cretaceous. Bennettitales were amongst the most common seed plants of the Mesozoic, and had morphologies including shrub and cycad-like forms. The foliage of bennettitaleans is superficially nearly indistinguishable from that of cycads, but they are distinguished from cycads by their more complex flower-like reproductive organs, at least some of which were likely pollinated by insects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fern spike</span> The geologically-rapid increase in fern abundance after extinction events

In paleontology, a fern spike is the occurrence of unusually high spore abundance of ferns in the fossil record, usually immediately after an extinction event. The spikes are believed to represent a large, temporary increase in the number of ferns relative to other terrestrial plants after the extinction or thinning of the latter. Fern spikes are strongly associated with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, although they have been found in other points of time and space such as at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Outside the fossil record, fern spikes have been observed to occur in response to local extinction events, such as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caytoniales</span> Extinct order of plants

The Caytoniales are an extinct order of seed plants known from fossils collected throughout the Mesozoic Era, around 252 to 66 million years ago. They are regarded as seed ferns because they are seed-bearing plants with fern-like leaves. Although at one time considered angiosperms because of their berry-like cupules, that hypothesis was later disproven. Nevertheless, some authorities consider them likely ancestors or close relatives of angiosperms. The origin of angiosperms remains unclear, and they cannot be linked with any known seed plants groups with certainty.

<i>Caytonia</i> Extinct genus of seed ferns

Caytonia is an extinct genus of seed ferns.

<i>Sagenopteris</i> Extinct genus of seed ferns

Sagenopteris is a genus of extinct seed ferns from the Triassic to late Early Cretaceous.

<i>Dicroidium</i> Extinct genus of corystosperm seed ferns

Dicroidium is an extinct genus of fork-leaved seed plants. It is the archetypal genus of the corystosperms, an extinct group of seed plants, often called "seed ferns", assigned to the order Corystospermales or Umkomasiales. Species of Dicroidium were widely distributed and dominant over Gondwana during the Triassic. Their fossils are known from South Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Callistophytaceae</span> Extinct family of seed ferns

The Callistophytaceae was a family of seed ferns (pteridosperms) from the Carboniferous and Permian periods. They first appeared in late Middle Pennsylvanian (Moscovian) times, 306.5–311.7 million years ago (Ma) in the tropical coal forests of Euramerica, and became an important component of Late Pennsylvanian vegetation of clastic soils and some peat soils. The best known callistophyte was documented from Late Pennsylvanian coal ball petrifactions in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peltaspermales</span> Extinct order of seed ferns

The Peltaspermales are an extinct order of seed plants, often considered "seed ferns". They span from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Jurassic or the Jurassic-Cretaceous Boundary. It includes at least one valid family, Peltaspermaceae, which spans from the Permian to Early Jurassic, which is typified by a group of plants with Lepidopteris leaves, Antevsia pollen-organs, and Peltaspermum ovulate organs, though the family now also includes other genera like Peltaspermopsis, Meyenopteris and Scytophyllum. Along with these, two informal groups of uncertain taxonomic affinities exist, each centered around a specific genus ; Supaia and Comia, known from the Early Permian of the Northern Hemisphere, especially of North America. Both the "Comioids" and the "Supaioids" are associated with the peltaspermacean ovulate organ Autunia. The Late Triassic-Middle Jurassic genus Pachydermophyllum may also have affinities to the peltasperms.

<i>Umkomasia</i> Extinct genus of seed ferns

Umkomasia is a genus of seed bearing organs produced by corystosperm seed ferns, first based on fossils collected by Hamshaw Thomas from the Burnera Waterfall locality near the Umkomaas River of South Africa. He recognized on the basis of cuticular similarities that the same plant produced pollen organs Pteruchus and the leaves Dicroidium. Various other corystosperm seed bearing organs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous have been assigned to this genus, but recently have been given distinct genera, with Umkomasia being restricted to the Triassic.

<i>Umkomasia macleanii</i> Fossil part of seed fern

Umkomasia macleanii is an ovulate structure of a seed fern (Pteridospermatophyta and the nominate genus of Family Umkomasiaceae. It was first described by Hamshaw Thomas from the Umkomaas locality of South Africa.

<i>Pteruchus africanus</i> Fossil pollen organ of seed fern

Pteruchus africanus is a pollen organ of a seed fern (Pteridospermatophyta). It was first described by Hamshaw Thomas from the Umkomaas locality of South Africa.

<i>Pteruchus</i> Extinct genus of seed ferns

Pteruchus is a form genus for pollen organs of the seed fern (Pteridospermatophyta family Umkomasiaceae. It was first described by Hamshaw Thomas from the Umkomaas locality of South Africa. It is associated with the seed bearing organs Umkomasia and Dicroidium leaves.

<i>Caytonia nathorstii</i> Extinct species of seed fern

Caytonia nathorstii is an extinct species of seed ferns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corystospermaceae</span> Extinct family of seed ferns

Corystosperms are a group of extinct seed plants belonging to the family Corystospermaceae assigned to the order Corystospermales or Umkomasiales. They were first described based on fossils collected by Hamshaw Thomas from the Burnera Waterfall locality near the Umkomaas River of South Africa. Corystosperms are typified by a group of plants that bore forked Dicroidium leaves, Umkomasia cupulate ovulate structures and Pteruchus pollen organs, which grew as trees that were widespread over Gondwana during the Middle and Late Triassic. Other fossil Mesozoic seed plants with similar leaf and/or reproductive structures have also sometimes been included within the "corystosperm" concept sensu lato, such as the "doyleoids" from the Early Cretaceous of North America and Asia. A potential corystosperm sensu lato, the leaf genus Komlopteris, is known from the Eocene of Tasmania, around 53-50 million years old, over 10 million years after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

<i>Dictyopteridium</i> Extinct genus of plants

Dictyopteridium is an extinct genus of plants belonging to Glossopteridaceae, but the name is used only for compression fossils of elongate multiovulate reproductive structures adnate to Glossopteris leaves. Permineralized remains identical to Dictyopteridium have been referred to the organ genus Homevaleia

<i>Lepidopteris callipteroides</i> Species

Lepidopteris callipteroides is a form species for leaves of Late Permian Pteridospermatophyta, or seed ferns, which lived from around 252 million years ago in what is now Australia, and Madagascar. Lepidopteris callipteroides was an immediate survivor of the largest Permian-Triassic extinction event, migrating southward with the post-apocalyptic greenhouse spike.

This paleobotany list records new fossil plant taxa that were to be described during the year 2012, as well as notes other significant paleobotany discoveries and events which occurred during 2012.

References

  1. Retallack, G.J.; Dilcher, D.L. (1988). "Reconstructions of selected seed ferns". Missouri Botanical Garden Annals. 75 (3): 1010–1057. doi:10.2307/2399379. JSTOR   2399379.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Townrow, John A. (1960). "The Peltaspermaceae, a pteridosperm family of Permian and Triassic age". Palaeontology. 3 (3): 333–361.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Dobruskina, Inna A. (1980). "Stratigrafeicheskoe polozhenie floronosnikh tolsch triasa Evrazi". Trudy Akademia Nauk SSSR, Moskva. 346: 1–164.
  4. 1 2 3 Retallack, Gregory J. (2002). "Lepidopteris callipteroides, the earliest Triassic seed fern in the Sydney Basin, southeastern Australia". Alcheringa. 26 (4): 475–599. doi:10.1080/03115510208619538. S2CID   129439745.
  5. 1 2 Bonis, N.R., Van Konijnenburg-Van Cittert, J.H.A., and Kürschner, W.M. (2010). "Changing CO2 conditions during the end-Triassic inferred from stomatal frequency analysis on Lepidopteris ottonis (Goeppert) Schimper and Ginkgoites taeniatus (Braun) Harris". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 295 (1–2): 146–161. Bibcode:2010PPP...295..146B. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.05.034.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. 1 2 Elgorriaga, A.; Escapa, I.; Cúneo, N. R. (2019). "Relictual Lepidopteris (Peltaspermales) from the Early Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation, Patagonia, Argentina". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 180 (6): 578–596. doi:10.1086/703461. S2CID   195435840 . Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  7. Retallack, Gregory J. (2013). "Permian and Triassic greenhouse crises". Gondwana Research. 24 (1): 90–103. Bibcode:2013GondR..24...90R. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2012.03.003.