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Ferns and fern allies from the Carnian (Upper Triassic) of Lunz am See, Lower Austria:
A melting pot of Mesozoic fern vegetationby
Christian Pott, Johannes M. Bouchal, Thereis Y. S. Choo, Rihab Yousif and Benjamin Bomfleur
With 22 plates, 12 text-figures and 1 table
AbstractThe floral assemblage from the Carnian (Upper Triassic) of Lunz am See in Austria contains a rich and diverse array of ferns and fern allies, most of which have been considered only marginally; some have been described, but more than a century ago, and the majority have never been illustrated. Therefore, we here provide a detailed analysis of these taxa accompanied by extensive descriptions, detailed illustrations and colour restorations of the plants. We identified 17 species of lycophytes, sphenophytes and pteridophytes assignable to 14 genera in seven families. One taxon could be identified to class level only. One new genus of dipteridacean ferns (viz. Digitopteris C.Pott et Bomfleur gen. nov.), so far monotypic, is here described from Lunz with its type species Digitopteris repanda C.Pott et Bomfleur sp. nov. The Lunz flora comprises an interesting mixture of eusporangiate Marattiales and leptosporangiate Osmundales, Gleicheniales and Schizaeales; the former representing a rather primitive group of ferns. The co-occurrence of eusporangiate and leptosporangiate ferns renders the Lunz flora important given the fact that eusporangiate ferns were predominating over more modern, leptosporangiate forms during the Paleozoic, whereas they typically constitute only subordinate components in fern vegetation since the mid-Mesozoic until today. Among the leptosporangiate forms, the species from Lunz represent, due to their Triassic age, more primitive forms, which probably were rather growth-restricted thriving as herbaceous understorey layer among the shade of the eusporangiate, tree-like marattialean ferns.
Keywords: lycophytes; sphenophytes; pteridophytes; Carnian; Upper Triassic; Lunz; Lower Austria
Contents1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Material and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Systematic palaeobotany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Lycophytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Sphenophytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Pteridophytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Habit and growth forms of the Lunz ferns . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Eusporangiatae meet Leptosporangiatae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Distribution and palaeogeography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Plates 1– 22 and explanation of plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Authors’ addresses:Christian Pott, LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Sentruper Straße 285, 48161 Münster, [email protected] Pott, Johannes M. Bouchal, Rihab Yousif, Benjamin Bomfleur, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Palaeobiology Department, Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, SwedenThereis Y. S. Choo, Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board, 1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569, SingaporeBenjamin Bomfleur, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik, Heisenbergstrasse 2, 48149 Münster, Germany
E
© 2018 E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany www.schweizerbart.deDOI: 10.1127/palb/2018/0059 2194-900X/18/0295/0059 $ 45.45
Palaeontographica, Abt. B: Palaeobotany – Palaeophytology ArticleVol. 297, Issues 1–6: 1–101Stuttgart, May 2018
