Araucariaceae – also known as Araucarians – is a family of coniferous trees, with three living genera, Araucaria, Agathis, and Wollemia. While the family was a common component of the flora globally during the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, in their native distribution they are now largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except for a few species of Agathis in Malesia.
The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, piñons, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly known as Coniferales. Pinaceae have distinctive cones with woody scales bearing typically two ovules, and are supported as monophyletic by both morphological trait and genetic analysis. They are the largest extant conifer family in species diversity, with between 220 and 250 species in 11 genera, and the second-largest in geographical range, found in most of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority of the species in temperate climates, but ranging from subarctic to tropical. The family often forms the dominant component of boreal, coastal, and montane forests. One species, Pinus merkusii, grows just south of the equator in Southeast Asia. Major centres of diversity are found in the mountains of southwest China, Mexico, central Japan, and California.
Agathis, commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside Wollemia and Araucaria. Agathis was a important genus in early cenozoic gondwana. Its leaves are much broader than most conifers. Kauri gum is commercially harvested from New Zealand kauri.
Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera, which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs up to 116 m (381 ft) tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red-brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species.
Cunninghamia is a genus of one or two living species of evergreen coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae. They are native to China, northern Vietnam and Laos, and perhaps also Cambodia. They may reach 50 m (160 ft) in height. In vernacular use, it is most often known as Cunninghamia, but is also sometimes called "China-fir". The genus name Cunninghamia honours Dr. James Cunningham, a British doctor who introduced this species into cultivation in 1702 and botanist Allan Cunningham.
Williamsonia is a genus of plant belonging to Bennettitales, an extinct order of seed plants. Within the form classification system used in paleobotany, Williamsonia is used to refer to female seed cones, which are associated with plants that also bore the male flower-like reproductive structure Weltrichia.
Cheirolepidiaceae is an extinct family of conifers. They first appeared in the Triassic, and were a diverse and common group of conifers during most of the Mesozoic era, primarily at low latitudes, where they often formed a dominant element of the vegetation. They are united by the possession of a distinctive pollen type assigned to the form genus Classopollis The name Frenelopsidaceae or "frenelopsids" has been used for a group of Cheirolepidiaceae with jointed stems, thick internode cuticles, sheathing leaf bases and reduced free leaf tips. The leaf morphology has been noted as being similar to that of halophyte Salicornia. Several members of the family appear to have been adapted for semi-arid and coastal settings, with a high tolerance of saline conditions. Cheirolepidiaceae disappeared from most regions of the world during the Cenomanian-Turonian stages of the Late Cretaceous, but reappeared in South America during the Maastrichtian, the final stage of the Cretaceous, increasing in abundance after the K-Pg extinction and being a prominent part of the regional flora during the Paleocene, before going extinct. Survival into the Paleocene in North America and China has also been suggested based on pollen.
The Cañadón Asfalto Formation is a geological formation from the Lower Jurassic, with doubtful layers of Late Jurassic age previously referred to it. The Cañadón Asfalto Formation is located in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, a rift basin in the Chubut Province of northwestern Patagonia, southern Argentina. The basin started forming in the earliest Jurassic.
Voltziales is an extinct order of conifers. The group contains the ancestral lineages from which modern conifer groups emerged. Voltzialean conifers are divided into two informal groups, the primitive "walchian conifers" like Walchia, where the ovuliferous cone is composed of radial shoots and the more advanced "voltzian voltziales", also known as "transitional conifers" where the cone is composed of fertile scales with sessile seeds, like those of modern conifers. Walchian conifers generally grew as small trees. The earliest walchian conifers are known from the Middle Pennsylvanian (Moscovian). The youngest walchian conifers are known from the Late Permian. The earliest "voltzian voltziales" are known from the late Early Permian (Kungurian). Modern conifer lineages emerged from voltzialean ancestors from the Late Permian to Jurassic. Voltzialean conifers outside modern groups such as Krassilovia/Podozamites survived into the Cretaceous, before becoming extinct. The genus Voltzia was named in honour of the French geologist Philippe Louis Voltz.
Araucaria mirabilis is an extinct species of coniferous tree from Patagonia, Argentina. It belongs to the genus Araucaria.
Brachyphyllum is a form genus of fossil coniferous plant foliage. Plants of the genus have been variously assigned to several different conifer groups including Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae. They are known from around the globe from the Late Carboniferous to the Late Cretaceous periods. B. sattlerae was named after the fictional palaebotanist Ellie Sattler from the Jurassic Park franchise.
This article records new taxa of plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2017, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that are scheduled to occur in the year 2017.
This article records new taxa of plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2018, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that occurred in the year 2018.
The Cañadón Calcáreo Formation is an Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian-aged geologic formation, from the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in Chubut Province, Argentina, a rift basin that started forming since the earliest Jurassic. It was formerly thought to date into the Cretaceous, but the age has been revised with Uranium–lead dating as likely being solely Late Jurassic in age.
This article records new taxa of plants that were described during the year 2014, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that occurred in the year 2014.
The Cañadón Asfalto Basin is an irregularly shaped sedimentary basin located in north-central Patagonia, Argentina. The basin stretches from and partly covers the North Patagonian Massif in the north, a high forming the boundary of the basin with the Neuquén Basin in the northwest, to the Cotricó High in the south, separating the basin from the Golfo San Jorge Basin. It is located in the southern part of Río Negro Province and northern part of Chubut Province. The eastern boundary of the basin is the North Patagonian Massif separating it from the offshore Valdés Basin and it is bound in the west by the Patagonian Andes, separating it from the small Ñirihuau Basin.
Los Adobes Formation is an Early Cretaceous (Aptian) geologic formation in Chubut Province, in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin of central Patagonia, Argentina. The formation belongs to the Chubut Group and represents the Early Cretaceous K1 megasequence in the basin, unconformably overlying the Late Jurassic Cañadón Calcáreo Formation and is overlain by the Albian Cerro Barcino Formation.
This list of 2013 in paleobotany records new fossil plant taxa that were described during 2013, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that occurred in the year.
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.
The Cañadón Asfalto Formation is a geological formation which dates to the Toarcian age of the Early Jurassic period of Argentina. The rocks of the formation preserve a diverse biota, including plants, dinosaurs, invertebrates, mammals and pterosaurs, among others. The formation is divided into two members: the lower Las Chacritas Member, and the overlying Puesto Almada member, though the latter has also been assigned to the overlying Cañadón Calcáreo Formation by some authors. The members are typically composed of fluvial-lacustrine deposits consisting of sandstones and shales, with a limestone carbonate evaporitic sequence also being present in the lower of the two.
