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The recognition of plant biogeographic ranges over time and migration routes is crucial for understanding ancient global plate tectonic configurations. This paper deals with a new fossil plant from the uppermost part of the Taiyuan Formation (earliest Asselian) in the Wuda Coalfield, Inner Mongolia, China. It has a taeniopterid morphology comprising strap-shaped leaves with a prominent midrib and arching secondary veins, and it exhibits dimorphism between its fertile and vegetative leaves. The fertile leaf has a slightly lobed margin, with each lateral vein terminating in a marginal lobe that bears a synangium. Each synangium consists of primarily two, occasionally three, oval sporangia. Based on these distinctive characteristics it is identified as a new species of Ilfeldia. Previously, Ilfeldia had a highly restricted record in the Upper Pennsylvanian of Portugal and Germany into the lower Permian of Germany. The sedimentary and floral context suggests Ilfeldia was a xerophilous element that underwent long-distance dispersal during the Late Pennsylvanian to earliest Asselian, migrating from Gondwana (Iberia) to Cathaysia (North China) via Euramerica (Eastern Avalonia). The palaeogeographical distribution over time of Ilfeldia supports the continental model of the Wegenerian Pangaea configuration and underscores the continental connection between Euramerica and Cathaysia in the Late Pennsylvanian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work contains the results of fern–arthropod interactions from a midland Atlantic Rainforest locality and addresses the taphonomic, morphological and ecological implications of insect damage on ferns to interpret them on fossil plant assemblages. Six functional feeding groups – margin feeding, hole feeding, surface feeding, piercing and sucking, mining and galling – are present on the three fern species inhabiting the understory of an Araucaria Forest in the Atlantic Forest biome, southern Brazil. We recognised 19 damage types (DTs), including 14 arthropod-induced DTs, three of which are newly proposed herein. Five of the DTs found were first recorded on ferns. Of the DTs found, the proportion of guilds such as mining and galling shows a significant similarity with those of an upland locality. Products of arachnids and insect behaviour on ferns made up 25% of all fern–arthropod interactions in the midland locality, which included dead bodies and byproducts from processes of arthropod life cycle, which are unlikely to be preserved in the fossil record. This rate of arthropod products consists of significant evidence of interactions to unveil deep-time relationships between arthropods and plants. Lastly, leaf damage on living ferns is more frequent than those occurring in fossil plant assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Höwenegg is an early Vallesian (MN9, 10.3 Ma) vertebrate locality in Hegau, Southwest Germany renowned for its preservation of complete mammalian skeletons, diverse invertebrate and plant fossils. We provide the first to be published photographic images of the Höwenegg Hippotherium primigenium skulls, mandibles and dentitions for describing critical character states used to define hipparion species. We compare these states to those for North American Cormohipparion occidentale, Turkish Cormohipparion sinapensis Algerian 'Cormohipparion' africanum, Austrian Pannonian C Hippotherium sp., Austrian locality Inzersdorf Hippotherium primigenium, the China type specimens of Hippotherium weihoense and 'Hipparion' chiai, and Moldovan Cremohipparion moldavicum. Also provided are univariate statistical comparisons of cranial-dental characters and Log10 ratio analyses of third metapodials dimensions to better evaluate taxonomic comparisons and define the genetic pool from which Old World hipparions are derived. We concur with previous authors that North American Cormohipparion is the likely source of first occurring Old World hipparions offering alternatives of Cormohipparion occidentale or Cormohipparion quinni as the most closely related species for the Old World Cormohipparion Datum. We find that the best evidence for the chronology of the Cormohipparion Datum suggests and age of 11.4–11.0 Ma, or 11.2–11.1 Ma rather than the 11.5 Ma datum recently alleged for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed germination is a crucial stage in the development of all plants. It normally occurs in the soil after the seed has fallen from the mother plant. In some infrequent instances, precocious germination (a type of viviparity or vivipary) occurs when the seed sprouts while still within the fruit. The present paper describes the first case of precocious germination of a fossil plant involving a number of seeds that have germinated in a pine cone embedded in Eocene Baltic amber. At the tips of the emerging hypocotyls are clusters of needles in fascicles of 5, associating the fossil with the extinct pine species Pinus cembrifolia Caspary described earlier from Baltic amber. Environmental implications of this discovery are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lobanoviella gen. nov. (type species: Lobanoviella andreyi sp. nov.), for which a new tribe Lobanoviellini trib. nov. is proposed in Palophaginae, Megalopodidae, is described from Baltic amber. The new tribe differs from Palophagini sensu stricto in the head with rather long anterior part before eyes, lack of distinct anterior emargination of eyes, three apical antennomeres flat and dilated, elytra coarsely punctate to coarsely tuberculate and tarsi pseudotrimerous (4-4-4 with lack of true tarsomere 2). The described representative is the first fossil record of Palophaginae. A probable host plant of the new fossil species is discussed. Comparison of the new genus with structurally similar modern members of the family Phloeostichidae is made and it is shown that the attribution of Pleuroceratos Poinar et Kirejtshuk, 2008, as a member of Sphindidae is correct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important combination of behaviour and pattern in animals to resemble benign objects, biolog ical mimesis can effectively avoid the detection of their prey and predators. It at least dates back to the Permian in fossil records. The recognition of mimesis within fossil, however, might be subjective and lack quantitative analysis being only based on few fossils with limited information. To compensate for this omission, we propose a new method using a Siamese network to measure the dissimilarity between hypothetical mimics and their models from images. It generates dissimilarity values between paired images of organisms by extracting feature vectors and calculating Euclidean distances. Additionally, the idea of 'transfer learning' is adopted to fine-tune the Siamese network, to overcome the limitations of available fossil image pairs. We use the processed Totally-Looks-Like, a large similar image data set, to pretrain the Siamese network and fine-tune it with a collected mimetic-image data set. Based on our results, we propose two recommended image dissimilarity thresholds for judging the mimicry of extant insects (0–0.4556) and fossil insects (0–0.4717). Deep learning algorithms are used to quantify the mimicry of fossil insects in this study, providing novel insights into exploring the early evolution of mimicry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neogene plant fossils from low latitudes of China are critical for understanding the history of plant diversity and paleoenvironment in that region. Here we describe well-preserved Cercis fruit fossils from the Fotan Group (~14.7 Ma) in Fujian, southeastern China. Based on detailed morphological and anatomical comparisons with extant and fossil species, we refer to these fossils as Cercis zhangpuensis sp. nov. Cercis zhangpuensis, most similar to C. chinensis A.V. Bunge among extant species of the genus. The currently described species is the southmost fossil record of the genus in Asia. In addition, we have studied cuticle structures of Cercis pod fossils for the first time. The occurrence of Cercis fossils indicates that the genus existed in Fujian, China since the middle Miocene. Available fossil records indicate that Cercis firstly appeared in North America during the Eocene, then spread in Europe and Asia since the Oligocene, with its distribution attaining the peak in the Miocene. We conclude that East Asia may represent one of the major centres of diversification of Cercis in the Miocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A megafossil flora (i.e., Shuicheng flora) has been collected from the Upper Permian Longtan Formation coal-bearing rock series in the Wangjiazhai coal district, Shuicheng county, western Guizhou Province, southwestern China. Shuicheng flora, as an important part of the late Permian Cathaysian flora in South China, thrived in warm and humid conditions after the eruption of the Emeishan basalt but disappeared during the end-Permian mass extinction event. Here the fossil plants including 13 species in 9 genera were systematically described and compared. Results of systematic taxonomic studies demonstrate that these fossil plants are dominated by ferns and pteridosperms, followed by some sphenopsids, ginkgophytes and lycopsids. Taphonomic analysis shows that these fossil plants are mainly dominated by parautochthonous burial and accompanied by a small number of heterochthonous burial. Meanwhile, the palaeoecological reconstruction of Shuicheng flora suggests that these plants including lepidodendrids presented tall trees, calamites presented trees, ferns and pteridosperms presented trees, small trees, shrub, microphanerophytes and herbaceous plants, and ginkgopsida presented trees grown on detrital substrates under warm and humid climatic conditions and constituted a portion of the terrestrial landscape in western Guizhou Province during the Wuchiapingian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper underscores the systematic study of the two species Ptilophyllum cutchense (Morris) Bose and Kasat and Ptilophyllum acutifolium (Morris) Bose and Kasat of the genus Ptilophyllum Morris. These species of the bennettitalean flora have been recorded for the first time from a newly discovered fossiliferous sedimentary succession of the Pariwar Formation cropping out near Serawa Village located at about 2 km west of Sanu Village of the Jaisalmer Basin. The investigated Serawa Section entails extremely rich record of undiversified bennettitalean flora. The Ptilophyllum cutchense of this studied succession also presents its first record from the Pariwar Formation of the Jaisalmer Basin. Ribbed axes are also described in this section. The floral record from the exposure near Serawa Village has been found somewhat different from the floral records made by earlier workers from the other known localities of the Pariwar Formation. The presence of leaf impressions, calcareous nannofossils and bioturbations in the successive horizons of the studied succession indicates the presence of shallow marine condition at the time of deposition of the rock unit under present endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leaf morphology and epidermal anatomy of a species of Pterophyllum, a morphological genus of Bennettitales, were studied in detail based on leaf fossil collected from the Middle Jurassic Yaojie Formation in the Baojishan Basin, Gansu Province, northwestern China. The fossil lamia is large; the segments are broadly linear to rectangular, opposite, each segment containing ca. 20 thin veins. The leaf cuticle is thin, hypostomatic, possessing of syndetocheilic stomatal complex. According to a detailed comparison on the basis of leaf morphology and cuticle features to other similar fossil plants, the fossil material was attributed to Pterophyllum propinquum Goeppert, which add to the details of the rachis, leaf cuticles of the species. Combined with the characteristics of paleoclimate change during the Mesozoic in China, the responses of the palaeogeographical distribution of Pterophyllum to paleoclimate change in different periods of Mesozoic in China are discussed. Moreover, based on the fossil floral assemblage and the cuticle features of P. propinquum, we presumed that it is a warm and humid climate in the Middle Jurassic in Baojishan basin, where the P. propinquum is a typical plant member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early-middle Eocene Fossil Hill flora from King George Island in the Antarctic Peninsula regions is one of the most diverse Cenozoic plant assemblages in Antarctica. It represents a rich Nothofagus and conifer dominated vegetation. These plant fossils, especially conifers are of crucial importance for understanding the biogeographic history of the Gondwanan plants. Here we describe the first Araucaria bract-scale complex, A. fildesensis sp. nov., and associated foliage from the Fossil Hill flora and tentatively assigned them to the Section Eutacta, which is today restricted to Australasia, based on comparison with extant material. This study confirms that Araucaria species with small bract-scale complexes, small scale-like mature leaves and awl-shaped juvenile leaves like those of extant Section Eutacta, lived in Antarctica in the Eocene. These fossils provide potential evidence for the trans-Antarctic floristic changes of Araucaria species in the Section Eutacta between southern Australia and southern South America during the Eocene, when Antarctica was ice-free and forested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant fossils are known from the Azores Islands, yet poorly studied. We present a comprehensive bibliographical review for the archipelago. A first pre-scientific reference dates from late fifteenth century, while the first scientific description was reported in 1821, accounting for trunks in pyroclastic units and silicified plants within hydrothermal deposits. Throughout the second-half of the nineteenth century and the first-half of the twentieth century, prospection by naturalists and geological mapping work, led to the discovery and description of plant fossils in most islands. From the 1970s onwards, the taxonomic interest ceased, and plant fossils were used mainly for 14C dating. Recently, sediment cores from lakes and peatlands were used for palaeoecological reconstructions and to measure anthropogenic impacts. Generally, plant fossils are younger than 50 ka, although older fossils may exist. Azorean plant fossils include somatofossils of leaves, stems, logs and seeds preserved as impressions, compressions, adpressions, permineralizations, lava tree casts and mummifications. The taphonomy of macrofloral elements is usually related to explosive volcanic activity, while palynological record is associated with lake sediments and peat bogs. The persistence in palaeobotanical and palaeopalynological studies will decisively contribute to disentangle the paleodiversity, palaeoecology, and add crucial information on insular plant phylogeny and biogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fossil record contains abundant evidence for the activity of microorganisms in the form of characteristic decay structures within fossil plant remains. Despite an abundance of charcoal in many sedimentary environments, there is little published evidence of such decay structures within charcoal from pre-Quaternary clastic deposits. The present contribution presents some examples of pre-Quaternary charcoal from clastic sediments which exhibit pre-charring decay structures, stratigraphically reaching from the Permian up to the Oligocene. Examples include specimens affected by the principle types of wood rot known from modern ecosystems (i.e. brown-rot, white rot and soft-rot) as well as a peculiar decay pattern resembling an atypical type of white-rot, which is only rarely known from modern wood. Theoretically there are different, so far hypothetical, scenarios which could be used to explain the scarcity of published reports on such material. Besides taphonomical biases directly influencing the sedimentary record of charcoal towards material not affected by microbial decay, it is conceivable that the lack of reports of such material from pre-Quaternary clastic deposits represents a, maybe unintentional, bias introduced by scientists working on pre-Quaternary charcoal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of insect-plant interaction can be provide paleoecological and paleoenvironmental important data for understanding the co-evolution between plants and insects. Since the appearance of the first evidence of leaves damaged by insects, these organisms have evolved together. In the Araripe Basin, the Crato Formation stands out by having abundance and diversity of fossils species of plants and insects. In this work they are documented interaction records in specimens of ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms, showing a wide variety of types of interactions. Here we analyze 56 fossil specimens from the collections of the Museum of Paleontology and the Laboratory of Paleontology of the Universidade Regional do Cariri. The types of damage identified in this study is insect galls, leaf margin feeding (herbivory), leaf mines, oviposition of insects and skeletonization, which are present in 19 specimens. This analysis in search for evidences of plant–insect interaction contributes with new interaction patterns for the Crato Formation. Although the low sample rate, the new registers for plant-insect association were compared to records from different cretaceous basins. This suggests new possibilities in the studies for ecological relations and coevolutionary plant-insect during the Cretaceous. In addition, a new type of damage is identified in a pteridophyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well-preserved Marattialean fertile fronds are analyzed in this paper that come from the Cisuralian Shanxi Formation of Yongchang, Gansu Province, northwestern China. In particular, synangium in fronds and in situ spores are analyzed in the lab. Data show that the synangium of this species contains between four and five radially arranged pedicellate sporangia. The spores of this plant are small, between 21 and 30 μm, monolete and microgranulate with no visible annule. The fossils presented in this study are included within the genus Cyathocarpus. Furthermore, these spore masses and spores in situ of this genus are described in detail at the first time as a component of the Cathaysian flora. Based on comparisons with previously reported fossil records of these plants, we determined a series of differences. Thus, the fossils presented here are referred to a new species. In addition, the reproductive organs of the new fossils described in this paper provide some valuable taxonomic information. Based on the paleogeographic distribution of Cyathocarpus and the position of paleoplates in Late Paleozoic, we speculated that one of the possible migrated routes of Cyathocarpus is from the Euramerica to the North China Block and Alashan Terrane, terminating in the South China Block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exceptionally well-preserved specimens from the middle Albian of Spain corresponding to a nearly complete fertile frond and fragments of pinnae containing soral clusters of the tree fernWeichselia reticulatahave provided new data about the structure and arrangement of pinnae and their associated fertile reproductive structure. This new material has been compared with the previous studies, and recostructions of this fern and the new data indicate the segregation of vegetative and fertile fronds within the main stipe of this fern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a previously unknown leaf-flora from the Upper Oligocene/Lower Miocene of the Ebro Basin, NE Spain, a period with a relatively poor vascular-plant fossil record in Southern Europe. The presence ofAcrostichumsp. is also important. This fern is extremely significant from the point of view of palaeoecology and the depositional environment. The macroflora appears to yield sufficient morphological characteristics to be identified at genus level, and sometimes at species level, although cuticles are not preserved. This article presents the first data obtained from the new outcrop at La Val; the following families have been identified: Pteridaceae, Dennstaedtiaceae, Equisetaceae, Pinaceae, Lauraceae, Hamamelidaceae, Betulaceae, Myricaceae and Salicaceae. The fossil plant assemblage is correlated with the Cadibona floristic complex (Mai, Tertiäre Vegetationsgeschichte Europas. Methoden und Ergebnisse, Gustav Fischer, Jena, 691 pp., 1995) and suggests a subtropical-to-warm temperate climate, rainy and wet, with a short dry season. The age of the assemblage is Late Oligocene/Early Miocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-preserved macroflora and rich palynological assemblages corresponding to the Camarillas Formation (early-middle Barremian) in the San Cristóbal and Galve Mine sites from the Galve sub-basin in northeastern Spain are presented here. These remains represent the first fossil plant evidence from these deposits. Within plant macroremains, the cheirolepidiaceanPseudofrenelopsisaff.varians(Fontaine) Watson has been found. The palynological assemblage yielded well-preserved spores and pollen grains, mainly dominated by the genusClassopollis. Spores are also abundantly represented by schizaeacean spores (CicatricosisporitesandPlicatella). This spore assemblage supports an early-middle Barremian age for these localities. It is noteworthy that small basal angiosperm pollen grains of the generaCrassipollisandRetimonocolpites, together with other indeterminate grains, have been reported here. This flora constitutes the primary food producer for dinosaur at that time, and thus the information of the flora is important for the understanding of the ecological background for the dinosaur evolution during the Early Cretaceous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cintura Formation of Albian–Cenomanian age in the Cabullona Basin yielded an important fossil flora, including palynomorphs, leaf impressions and fossil trunks. At the base of the Marquechi Member a poorly preserved palynomorph assemblage is recognised. The palynological assemblage is dominated by gymnosperms, mainly by cheirolepidiacean genusClassopollis. A noteworthy feature is the presence of angiosperm pollen grains of the generaClavatipollenites,RetimonocolpitesandTucanopollis. A rich, diverse and well-preserved macroflora of leaf impressions has been observed in the uppermost part of this formation belonging to the San Juan Member. There are at least eight morphospecies of leaves including an abundance of taxa with possible botanical affinities to the family Sapindaceae. The angiosperm pollen grains together with the sapindalean leaves constitute the oldest record of such remains in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiovulate cupule of a new spermatophyte,Thorezia vezerensisgen.etsp. nov., is described from the Late Devonian aged sediments from Trooz Quarry in Belgium. In gross morphology, it conforms to theMoresnetiamorphotype and has a cupule that is composed of four independent quarters that each dichotomises three times. Each cupule quarter contains one single ovoid preovule with a long pedicel and an integument that has small apical teeth surrounding a rudimentary micropyle. Morphological variability in the materials examined is interpreted as being related to preovule maturity, and from this a good understanding of the ontogenetic development from preceding dispersal has been developed. Up to now, 17 spermatophyte species have been described, 11 of which come from eastern Laurussia. This diversity in eastern Laurussia contrasts strongly with the low diversity characterizing contemporaneous floras from other phytogeographical areas. We suggest here that the arid climatic conditions prevailing in eastern Laurussia favoured the development of diverse spermatophyte communities and contributed to reduced diversity and abundance of contemporaneous free-sporing plant diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palaeobotanical and palynological data were analysed from the Mississippian localities of the north-western part of Russia. The distribution of various fossil plants in the studied area has been traced. The palynological assemblages were described and palaeoecologically analysed. Arborescent lycopsids played the main role in the palaecommunities. Arthrophytes did not significantly influence the composition of the assemblages under study. Pteridosperms dominated only in repopulate disturbed areas. It has been demonstrated that the forest mire vegetation type dominated during all studied time intervals while the non-forest mire gradually diminished. Palaeoecological interpretation of palynological data is generally supported by palaeobotanical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An anatomically preserved lycopsid,Lobodendron fanwanensegen.etsp. nov.Liu, Wang, Xue & Meng, is described from the Upper Devonian (Famennian) Wutong Formation of Changxing County, Zhejiang Province, China. The fossil plant bears slender, dichotomously branched axes. The vascular strand consists of solid terete primary xylem and lobed secondary xylem, which implies the result from the activity of possibly discontinuous cambium. The new plant has character combinations that do not conform to any branches in the canopy of the tree-lycopsids known previously, but resemble those of the basal part of some pseudoherbaceous lycopsids. This new plant may exemplify a Late Devonian lycopsid with a pseudoherbaceous growth habit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fossil plant assemblage composed of a great amount of macro, meso and microscopical charcoalifed remains occur in a single layer in Albian deposits of the Escucha Formation in northeastern Spain. This assemblage consists fundamentally of fragments of pinnae and pinnules corresponding to the Matoniaceous fernsWeichselia reticulataandPhlebopteris dunkerialso with some gymnosperm wood remains. The features of both the fossil plants and the deposit itself indicate accurate paleoenvironmental conditions related to the action of wildfires over the vegetation growing in freshwater swamp plains during Albian in Southwestern Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By taking gymnosperms as a case study, this article evaluates the perception of plant life history from the fossil record to test the biases associated with the time-dependent aspects of the taxonomy, following a stepwise modelling procedure based on two divergent sets of time units. The idea that the effects of the temporal component of paleobiological inference need to be evaluated to remove any possible bias in our interpretation and perception of plant evolution based on analyses of large-scale data sets is investigated. The results reveal important differences in our perception of the tempo of gymnosperm evolution and how it is biased in terms of time unit length due to the loss of information as a consequence of the timescale resolution. Despite singletons representing real morphological diversity translated into independent taxonomic categories, these taxa can distort perceptions of the intensity of the long paleofloristic diversification moments of gymnosperms if their effect is not considered. This study shows a complete overview of the evolutionary profiles of gymnosperms with significant discrepancies in the function of how singletons are quantitatively processed in paleobotanical data analyses, and it provides new evidence about how the ‘zoom effect’ can magnify our perception of extinction events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the discontinuity patterns of Paleozoic vascular plants provides a global vision of these key events from the multivariate methods viewpoint. Non-metric multidimensional scaling, detrended correspondence analysis and cluster analysis have been employed together with a set of diversity and abundance measures and an evaluation of the geologic constraints from the plant fossil record data. The results reveal four clear significant discontinuities in terms of taxonomic composition and record representativeness during the early-middle Devonian, Devonian-Carboniferous, Mississippian-Pennsylvanian and early-late Permian. Due to the controversial character of the plant fossil record data and the effect of mass extinction events, the results can be explained in taxonomic turnover and ecological reorganisation terms which emphasise the crucial role of the geologic constrains in paleobiological inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]