Vorsitzende der Sitzung
Whole-plant-taxa and whole-plant reconstruction
- Christian Pott (LWL-Museum of Natural History Münster)
Beschreibung
Assembling of fossil plants is limited due to the plants’ nature of shedding their different organs such as leaves, fruits, seed cones, flowers, etc., for different reasons such as fruit maturation, seed dispersal, frost protection, ageing, consumption. In consequence, these different plant parts are commonly found isolated. In rare cases, entire plant portions yielding different parts in organic connection are discovered, which then add to the restoration of closely related plants. While some scholars used the indication of different parts being preserved on the same slabs or bedding planes as evidence of potential association of these plant parts, in the last decades, the value and applicability of fossil plant cuticles has repeatedly provided good evidence for assembling whole-plant taxa from various organs such as foliage, axes, reproductive units. Such plants can serve as entire natural units and might need special nomenclatural consideration compared to the earlier promoted concept of form-classification of fossil plant organs, nowadays reflected in the term ‘fossil-taxon’ as deployed by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. The symposium addresses all kinds and methods, as well as the theoretical background, of achieving whole-plant taxon circumscriptions and whole-plant reconstructions, as well as ecological interpretations, or illustrations and display models, adapted from the scientific results.
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Christian Pott (LWL-Museum of Natural History Münster)23.09.26, 09:00Whole-plant-taxa and whole-plant reconstructionTalk
Lepidodendron aculeatum is an arborescent lycopod that populated the vast coal swamps in north-western and central Europe during the Late Carboniferous (Serpukhovian–Moscovian) dominating the lush vegetation of tropical wetlands. Not only was the species the most prominent producer of the thick coal seams mined in those areas for the last centuries, these up to 40-m-tall plants also...
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Wenjun Sun (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)23.09.26, 09:15Whole-plant-taxa and whole-plant reconstructionTalk
Marattialean tree ferns were major components of tropical wetland forests during the late Paleozoic. Fossil record of isolated organs is extremely rich, but most of them are morphspecies (e.g. Pecopteris) which covered the actual diversity of this group. The T0 fossil Lagerstätte known as Permian “vegetational Pompeii”/ Wuda Tuff Flora, has yielded numerous organically connected organs of...
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Jun Wang (State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)23.09.26, 09:30Whole-plant-taxa and whole-plant reconstructionTalk
Lycopsids, a monophyletic lineage of vascular plants originated in Late Silurian-Early Devonian, reached peak diversity as arborescent forms during Carboniferous-Permian, dominating tropical wetlands and contributing 50-90% of peat-forming biomass. Despite abundant fossil records, their biology such as gross morphology, ontogeny and lifespan remains poorly understood. Here, we present the...
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Yongdong Wang (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Nanjing 210008, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10049, China)23.09.26, 09:45Whole-plant-taxa and whole-plant reconstructionTalk
Pagiophyllum (Heer, 1881) is a form genus of extinct fossil conifers ranging from the Late Permian to Late Cretaceous, frequently allied with the family Cheirolepidiaceae. Most records consist of fragmentary shoots lacking cuticles and reproductive organs. Among these fossil records, Pagiophyllum maculosum Kendall is a remarkable species initially described from the Middle Jurassic of...
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Hideo Takimoto (Ibaraki Nature Museum)23.09.26, 10:00Whole-plant-taxa and whole-plant reconstructionTalk
Excellently preserved, articulated plant fossils from the Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) Tochikubo Formation in Northeast Japan provide critical insights into the diversity and reconstruction of whole-plant bennettites. Based on these discoveries, two distinct taxa were most recently described and reconstructed. First, Ohaniella ptilofolia gen. et sp. nov. is established based on preserved axes...
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Koki Iida (Chiba University)23.09.26, 10:15Whole-plant-taxa and whole-plant reconstructionTalk
A permineralized ovulate cone of Metasequoia Miki (Cupressaceae), representing the oldest record of the genus in Japan, was discovered in the Upper Cretaceous Obisagawa Member of the Ashizawa Formation, Futaba Group (latest Turonian to earliest Coniacian), in Hirono Town, Fukushima, Japan. Here we report its anatomical features and affinities, focusing on the evolutionary history of...
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