Uncertainties in the age and phylogenetic position of Pinaceae fossils present significant obstacles to our understanding of the timing of diversification in the family. We demonstrate that simultaneous phylogenetic analyses of chloroplastDNA(matK and rbcL) and nonmolecular characters that include both extant genera and a limited number of fossil taxa provide...
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...
A fossil seed cone with characters that have been hypothesized as transitional to the origin of crown group gnetophytes has been discovered in Lower Cretaceous deposits on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. This cone, described as Protoephedrites eamesii gen. et sp. nov., provides the first anatomically preserved fossil evidence for...
Reexamination of fossilized plant material from the westernmost Pennsylvanian-age wetland flora in North America reveals that material of Pecopteris oregonensis Arnold represents a filicalean fern frond with annulate sporangia and anatomically preserved vascular tissues of the rachis. The frond, which is redescribed as Senftenbergia oregonensis (Arnold) Hillier et Rothwell comb....
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...
A cylindrical permineralized conifer seed cone has been identified from the Officer Member of the Trowbridge Formation, near Izee, in east-central Oregon. The cone is preserved in a Middle Jurassic (Callovian) marine calcium carbonate concretion, associated with araucarian seed cones, conifer twigs and wood, cycad seeds, fern rachides, and lycopodialean...
Premise of research. A new, morphologically distinct, anatomically preserved conifer assignable to the basal Cupressaceae, which was subject to arthropod infestation during life, has been discovered within a marine carbonate concretion from the Coniacian (Late Cretaceous) Eden Main locality of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Methods. Specimens were studied from anatomical...
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...
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...