Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T08:48:48.247Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Szecladia new genus, a late Permian conifer with multiveined leaves from South China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Zhao-Qi Yao
Affiliation:
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China,
Lu-Jun Liu
Affiliation:
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China,
Gar W. Rothwell
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens 45701, ,
Gene Mapes
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens 45701, ,

Abstract

A conifer from the uppermost Permian with small, helically arranged leaves is described from the Guangxi Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province of South China as Szecladia multinervia, new genus and species. The material includes both impression specimens and the first anatomically preserved Paleozoic conifer fossils from China. Shoots are irregularly branched, with small, helically arranged, multiveined leaves. Stems display an endarch eustele with abundant, dense wood. Leaf traces diverge from the stele as a single bundle that divides several times in the cortex and at the base of the leaves, forming about seven or eight parallel veins in each leaf. Szecladia is the earliest known conifer with multiveined leaves and it represents a distinctive coniferous element of the uppermost Permian Cathaysian flora in South China. Szecladia further demonstrates that conifers with wood and leaf venation suggestive of the Podocarpaceae may have evolved by the end of the Paleozoic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, J. M., and Anderson, H. M. 1985. Palaeoflora of Southern Africa. Prodromus of South African megafloras Devonian to Lower Cretaceous. Balkema, Rotterdam, 423 p.Google Scholar
Archangelsky, S., and Cuneo, R. 1987. Ferugliocladaceae, a new conifer family from the Permian of Gondwana. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 51:330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axsmith, B. J. 1998. Anatomically preserved leaves of the conifer Notophytum krauselii (Podocarpaceae) from the Triassic of Antarctica. American Journal of Botany, 85(5):704713.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clement-Westerhof, J. A. 1984. Aspects of Permian Paleobotany and Palynology. IV. The conifer Ortiseia Florin from the Val Gardena Formation of the Dolomites and Vicentinian Alps (Italy) with special reference to a revised concept of the Walchiaceae (Goeppert) Schimper. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 41:51166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feng, S. N., and Zhu, J. N. 1985. Studies on the genus Ullmannia from South China. Acta Botanica Sinica, 27(2):203207. (In Chinese with English abstract)Google Scholar
Goeppert, H. R. 1850. Monographie der Fossilen Coniferen. Leiden, 286 p.Google Scholar
Grauvogel-Stamm, L. 1978. La flore de grès a Voltzia (Buntsandstein supérieur) des Vosges du Nord (France). Morphologic anatomie, interprétations phylogenique et paléogéographique. Universitié Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg Institut de Géologic Mémoire No. 50, 225 p.Google Scholar
Greguss, P. 1955. Identification of living gymnosperms on the basis of xylotomy. Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, Hungary, 263 p.Google Scholar
Greguss, P. 1972. Xylotomy of the living conifers. Akademiei Kiado, Budapest, Hungary, 329 p.Google Scholar
Gu, , and Zhi, . 1974 Paleozoic plants from China. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeobotany; Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica (eds.), Science Press, Beijing, 277 p.Google Scholar
Halle, T. G. 1927. Palaeozoic plants from Central Shansi. Palaeontologia Sinica, Series A. 2(1):1316.Google Scholar
He, X. L., Liang, D. S., and Shen, S. Z. 1996. Research on the Permian flora from Jiangxi Province, China. China University of Mining and Technology Press, Xuzhou, 300 p. (In Chinese with English summary)Google Scholar
Kerp, J. H. F., Poort, R. J., Swinkels, H. A. J. M., and Verwer, R. 1990. Aspects of Permian paleobotany and palynology. IX. Conifer-dominated Rotliegend floras from the Saar-Nahe Basin (?Late Carboniferous-Early Permian; SW-Germany) with special reference to the reproductive biology of early conifers. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 62:205248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mapes, G., and Rothwell, G. W. 1988. Diversity among Hamilton conifers, p. 225244. In Mapes, G. and Mapes, R. H. (eds.), Regional geology and Palaeontology of upper Paleozoic Hamilton quarry area in southeastern Kansas. Guidebook 6, Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Mapes, G., and Rothwell, G. W. 1991. Structure and relationships of primitive conifers. Neues Jahrbuch Geologie und Paläeontogie, Abhandlungen, 183(1-3):269287.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1978. Permian conifers of West Angaraland and new puzzles in the coniferalean phylogeny. The Palaeobotanist, 25:298313.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1987. Fundamentals of Palaeobotany. Chapman and Hall, New York, 432 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1988. Gymnosperms of the Angara flora, p. 338381. In Beck, C. B. (ed.), Origin and evolution of gymnosperms. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Meyen, S. V. 1997. Permian conifers of Western Angaraland. Review of Palaeobtany and Palynology, 96:351447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pant, D. D. 1982. The Lower Gondwana gymnosperms and their relationships. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 37:5570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothwell, G. W. 1988. Cordaitales, In Beck, C. B. (ed.), Origin and evolution of gymnosperms. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Rothwell, G. W., Mapes, G., and Mapes, R. H. 1997. Late Paleozoic conifers of North America: structure, diversity and occurrences. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 95:95113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schweitzer, H.-J. 1962. Die Makroflora des niederrheinischen Zechsteins. Fortschritte Geologie von Rheinland und Westfalen, 6:331376.Google Scholar
Shen, G. L. 1995. Permian floras, p. 127223. In Li, X. et al. (eds.), Fossil floras of China through the geological ages. Guangdong Science and Technology Press, Guangzhou.Google Scholar
Sze, H. C. 1940. Ueber ein Vorkommen von Ullmannia aus dem Perm in Kwangsi. Bulletin of Geological Society of China, 20(2):155160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yao, Z. Q., Xu, J. T., Zheng, Z. G., Mo, Z. G., and Zhao, X. H. 1980. Late Permian biostratigraphy and problem of Permian-Triassic boundary in western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan, p. 169. In Stratigraphy and Palaeontology of Late Permian coal-bearing formations in western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan. Science Press, Beijing. (In Chinese)Google Scholar
Zhao, J. K., Sheng, J. Z., Yao, Z. Q., Liang, X. L., Chen, C. Z., Rui, L., and Liao, Z. T. 1981 The Changhsingian and Permian-Triassic boundary of South China. Bulletin of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica, (2):1112. (In Chinese with English summary)Google Scholar
Zhao, X. H., Mo, Z. G., Zhang, S. Z., and Yao, Z. Q. 1980. Late Permian flora from western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan, p. 70122. In Stratigraphy and Palaeontology of Late Permian coal-bearing formations in western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan. Science Press, Beijing. (In Chinese)Google Scholar
Zhou, T. Y. 1983. Stalagma samara, a new podocarpaceous conifer with monocolpate pollen from the Upper Triassic of Hunan, China. Palaeontographica 185B:5678.Google Scholar