Todea Temporal range: | |
---|---|
Todea barbara | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Division: | Polypodiophyta |
Class: | Polypodiopsida |
Order: | Osmundales |
Family: | Osmundaceae |
Genus: | Todea Willdenow ex Bernhardi |
Type species | |
Todea africana Willdenow 1802 | |
Species | |
The fern genus Todea is known from only two living species. Species in the genus Todea, as Leptopteris , are distinct from other in Osmundaceae in that sporangia are born on laminar pinnules.
The species in the genus have a sub-erect stem and coarse, pinnate leaves. Many large sporangia are located on the bottoms of the leaves and are not arranged in sori or covered by an indusium. [1]
Only two extant species are currently recognised. Todea barbara L., known as the king fern, is native to South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia while Todea papuana H. is known only from Papua New Guinea.
So far the fossil record of the genus Todea consists only of the permineralized rhizome Todea tidwellii from the Lower Cretaceous of Vancouver Island, Canada and the species Todea amissa, known from the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina. [2] Todea minutacaulis has also been described from the Lower Cretaceous of Vancouver Island and represents the first anatomically preserved fossil fern sporeling from the fossil record.
Osmundaceae is a family of ferns containing four to six extant genera and 18–25 known species. It is the only living family of the order Osmundales in the class Polypodiopsida (ferns) or in some classifications the only order in the class Osmundopsida. This is an ancient and fairly isolated group that is often known as the "flowering ferns" because of the striking aspect of the ripe sporangia in Claytosmunda, Osmunda, Osmundastrum, and Plensium. In these genera the sporangia are borne naked on non-laminar pinnules, while Todea and Leptopteris bear sporangia naked on laminar pinnules. Ferns in this family are larger than most other ferns.
Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. While today they are largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, during the Jurassic and Cretaceous they were distributed globally. There are 20 extant species in New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
Osmunda is a genus of primarily temperate-zone ferns of family Osmundaceae. Five to ten species have been listed for this genus.
Osmundastrum is genus of leptosporangiate ferns in the family Osmundaceae with one living species, Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, the cinnamon fern. It is native to the Americas and eastern Asia, growing in swamps, bogs and moist woodlands.
Cyathea cranhamii is an extinct species of tree fern. It was described based on permineralised sori from the Early Cretaceous Longarm Formation deposits of Apple Bay on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Appianoporites is an extinct monotypic genus of fungus in the Agaricomycetes family Hymenochaetaceae. At present it contains the single species Appianoporites vancouverensis.
The Allenby formation is a sedimentary rock formation in British Columbia which was deposited during the Ypresian stage of the Early Eocene. It consists of conglomerates, sandstones with interbedded shales and coal. The shales contain an abundance of insect, fish and plant fossils known from 1877 and onward, while the Princeton Chert was first indented in the 1950's and is known from anatomically preserved plants.
This article records new taxa of fossil plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2015, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that are scheduled to occur in the year 2015.
This article contains papers in paleobotany that were published in 2016.
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.
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.
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.
This article records new taxa of fossil plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2020, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that are scheduled to occur in the year 2020.
The Laguna del Hunco Formation or Laguna del Hunco Tuff is a localized Early Eocene fossiliferous geological formation of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in central Patagonia, Argentina. The 170 metres (560 ft) thick formation comprises tuffaceous mudstones and sandstones deposited in a crater lake environment and crops out at Laguna del Hunco in the northwestern Chubut Province.
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.
The paleoflora of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands includes all plant and fungi fossils preserved in the Eocene Okanagan Highlands Lagerstätten. The highlands are a series of Early Eocene geological formations which span an 1,000 km (620 mi) transect of British Columbia, Canada and Washington state, United States and are known for the diverse and detailed plant fossils which represent an upland temperate ecosystem immediately after the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, and before the increased cooling of the middle and late Eocene to Oligocene. The fossiliferous deposits of the region were noted as early as 1873, with small amounts of systematic work happening in the 1880-90s on British Columbian sites, and 1920-30s for Washington sites. A returned focus and more detailed descriptive work on the Okanagan Highlands sites revived in the 1970's. The noted richness of agricultural plant families in Republic and Princeton floras resulted in the term "Eocene orchards" being used for the paleofloras.
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.
Notopithecus is an extinct genus of Notoungulate, belonging to the suborder Typotheria. It lived from the Middle to the Late Eocene and its fossilized remains were discovered in South America.
Pararaucaria is a genus of conifer cone belonging to the extinct family Cheirolepidiaceae. Fossils are known from the Lower Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of North America, Europe, South America and Asia. It is associated with Brachyphyllum-type foliage.