• Premise of the study: Colonists of even the most inhospitable environments, lichens are present in all terrestrial ecosystems.
Because of their ecological versatility and ubiquity, they have been considered excellent candidates for early colonizers of terrestrial
environments. Despite such predictions, good preservation potential, and the extant diversity of lichenized...
A perithecial ascomycete, Spataporthe taylori gen. et sp. nov., represented by >70 sporocarps is preserved by
cellular permineralization in marine carbonate concretions dated at the Valanginian-Hauterivian boundary (Early
Cretaceous) from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The spheroid perithecia with lumina 330–470 µm
wide and 220–320 µm high are densely distributed...
PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Mosses, very diverse in modern ecosystems, are currently underrepresented in the fossil record. For the pre-Cenozoic, fossil mosses are known almost exclusively from compression fossils, while anatomical preservation, which is much more taxonomically informative, is rare. The Lower Cretaceous of Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada) hosts...
PREMISE OF RESEARCH: Anatomically preserved platanaceous inflorescences have been found in rocks of Late
Cretaceous (Coniacian) age at the Eden Main locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
METHODOLOGY: Specimens occur in calcium carbonate concretions near the base of the Nanaimo Group
(Comox Formation) and are studied with the cellulose...
Premise of research. The lianoid habit is found in 125 extant plant families and is most diverse and abundant in structurally complex forests, such as tropical forests. A stem with lianoid anatomy is described from Cretaceous sediments of Hornby Island, British Columbia.
Methodology. The stem segment, 2.5 cm in diameter...
Premise of research: A distinctive new species of osmundaceous fern, based on a permineralized trunk from
Lower Cretaceous deposits of Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) off the west coast of mainland
Canada, provides additional data for addressing the Mesozoic diversity and the overall pattern of phylogeny
for osmundaceous...
Premise of the study: Pinaceae and nonpinoid species are sister groups within the conifer clade as inferred from molecular systematic comparisons of living species and therefore should have comparable geological ages. However, the fossil record for the nonpinoid lineage of extant conifer families is Triassic, nearly 100 million years older...
Premise of research. A third genus of anatomically preserved conifer seed cones has been recognized from
a Late Jurassic deposit in northeastern Scotland. This cone is described as Bancroftiastrobus digitata Rothwell,
Mapes, Stockey et Hilton.
Methodology. The cone was sectioned with the classic coal ball peel technique and studied and...
PREMISE OF RESEARCH. The occurrence of six ovulate cones and six leafy branching systems, two of which
show attachment of the ovulate cone, reveals a new cunninghamioid fossil conifer from the Cretaceous Apple
Bay locality of Vancouver Island, Canada. This anatomically preserved plant expands our understanding of
basal Cupressaceae in...
Premise of research. A large pollen cone cluster attached to a cunninghamioid twig and surrounded by leaves has been identified from Eocene calcium carbonate marine concretions from the Appian Way locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The cluster preserves 18 cones but probably bore at least 24 pollen cones...