Pseudofrenelopsis

Mendes, Mário Miguel, Dinis, Pedro & Kvaček, Jiří, 2018, Some Conifers From The Early Cretaceous (Late Aptian - Early Albian) Of Catefica, Lusitanian Basin, Western Portugal, Fossil Imprint 74 (3 - 4), pp. 317-326 : 320

Pseudofrenelopsis cf. parceramosa (FONTAINE) J. WATSON, 1977

Text-fig. 3 d–f

D e s c r i p t i o n. The studied mesofossils represent fragments of axes and single stocky leaves. The axes consist of nodes and internodes. Each leaf shows one short free tip (Textfig. 3d). The flat internodes are up to 6.9 mm long and 3.6 mm wide (the latter corresponding to half a perimeter). The distal margins of leaves bear dense, long, hairy papillae. The leaf tips are up to 0.7 mm long. Stomata are arranged in well-defined parallel longitudinal rows running parallel to the internode axis ( Text-fig. 3e ). Stomata are circular to elliptical in outline and

show a raised elliptical rim ( Text-fig. 3f , arrowed). They are

surrounded by about 5 papillae set on periclinal walls of the

same number of subsidiary cells ( Text-fig. 3f , arrowed).

D i s c u s s i o n. Pseudofrenelopsis includes 12 species

that have been reported from the Berriasian – Albian in Brazil, the Czech Republic, China, Columbia, England,

Mexico, Korea, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sudan and USA

(e.g. Nathorst 1893, Reymanόwna and Watson 1976, Watson

and Alvin 1976, Alvin 1977, Watson 1977, 1983, 1988, Alvin

et al. 1981, Zhou 1983, Hluštík 1988, Srinivasan 1995, Saiki

1999, Deng et al. 2005, Axsmith 2006, Moreno Sánchez et

al. 2007, Yang and Deng 2007, Mendes et al. 2010, Sun et al.

2011, Kim et al. 2012, Hill et al. 2012, Villanueva-Amadoz et al. 2014, Sucerquia et al. 2015, Peixoto Batista et al. 2017).

The studied material shows important diagnostic

characters of P. parceramosa – smooth cuticle with stomata arranged in well-defined rows ( Alvin 1977, Watson 1977). The aperture of the stomatal pit is rounded, formed by a well-developed rim (Florin ring). However, its papillae on subsidiary cells sunken in stomatal pits are not always visible. In this preliminary study we assign it to the species P. parceramosa, which was described by Alvin (1977) from the Early Cretaceous of Portugal. This species was reported from the Late Cretaceous of USA ( Fontaine 1889, Watson 1977), Portugal ( Alvin 1977), Great Britain ( Watson and Alvin 1976, Alvin et al. 1981, Watson 1977, 1983, 1988), Poland (Reymanόwna and Watson 1976) and is generally one of the best known frenelopsids ( Watson 1988).

Figures

Text-fig. 3. SEM micrographs of two types of conifers from the Early Cretaceous mesofossil flora of Catefica, Portugal. (a) Shoot fragment of Frenelopsis turolensis with terminally short triangular free tips (P0357, sample Catefica 310). (b) Outer surface with papillae and stomata arranged in longitudinal rows (P0357, sample Catefica 310). (c) Stomatal chamber with outer and inner papillae (arrows) (P0357, sample Catefica 310). (d) Flat internode of Pseudofrenelopsis cf. parceramosa (P0132, sample Catefica 315). (e) Outer view of the abaxial surface showing stomatal rows (P0132, sample Catefica 315). (f) Detail of stomatal rows showing massive rings around the stomatal pits (arrows) (P0132, sample Catefica 315). Scale bars = 1 mm (a, d, e); 100 μm (b); 50 μm (f); 5 μm (c).