Filicites sect. Pecopteris BRONGNIART

Cleal, Christopher J. & Thomas, Barry A., 2018, Nomenclatural Status Of The Palaeobotanical “ Artificial Taxa ” Established In Brongniart’S 1822 “ Classification ” Paper, Fossil Imprint 74 (1 - 2), pp. 9-28 : 18-19

Filicites sect. Pecopteris BRONGNIART

Text-fig. 1 g–i

1822a Filicites (Pecopteris) BRONGNIART , p. 233.

1825 Pecopteris (BRONGNIART) STERNBERG, Tentamen p. xvii.

Ty p e. Filicites (sect. Pecopteris) penniformis BRONGNIART, 1822a, p. 233 , pl. 2, fig. 3; Loc. Middle Pennsylvanian Series, Dudweiler, near Saarbrücken, Germany (vide Brongniart 1836: 345); ≡ Pecopteris penniformis (BRONGNIART) BRONGNIART, 1828a .

D i a g n o s i s. “la fronde est pinnatifide à pinnules adherents par leur base au rachis, transversée par une nervure médiane et à nervures secondaires pennées.”

D i s c u s s i o n. When Sternberg (1825) raised this species in rank to genus, he illegitimately renamed the type species Pecopteris pennata STERNBERG, 1825 , but this name must be supressed as a later homotypic synonym. In the original definition of Brongniart (1822a) this name was used for both fern and seed-plant fronds. However, mainly through the separation off of species with larger pinnules such as Alethopteris STERNBERG, 1825 , and Callipteridium (E. WEISS) GRAND’ EURY, 1877 (≡ Odontopteris (Callipteridium) E. WEISS, 1870 ) the name has become almost exclusively used for Palaeozoic fern foliage. Only fronds of the seedplant family Callistophytaceae STIDD et HALL, 1970 , have occasionally still been referred to Pecopteris , but even this is nowadays unusual; such fronds are normally now referred to Dicksonites STERZEL, 1881 .

Most Palaeozoic pecopteroid foliage belong to two families: the Psaroniaceae UNGER ex ENDLICHER, 1842 , ( Marattiales ) and Tedeleaceae EGGERT et TAYLOR, 1966 , (Botryopteridales). The type of Pecopteris unequivocally belongs to the family today usually referred to as the Tedeleaceae and so the name should be restricted to species belonging to that family, most notably P. penniformis , Pecopteris plumosa (ARTIS) BRONGNIART, 1836 (≡ Filicites plumosus ARTIS, 1825 ) and Pecopteris volkmannii SAUVEUR, 1848 . These species have in the past been placed in a separate fossil-genus based on the distinctive soral structures, variously named Senftenbergia CORDA, 1845 and Dactylotheca ZEILLER, 1883 , but (as pointed out by Cleal 2015) these names should be supressed as later taxonomic synonyms of Pecopteris .

On this basis, Pecopteris should not be used for species that are demonstrably attributable to the Psaroniaceae . Most of the well-established Psaroniaceae fossil-species can be assigned to one or other of the fossil-genera that are based on a combination of pinnule morphology and venation, and sporangial form (as summarised in Cleal 2015).