Cycadeoidea
Cycadeoidea Temporal range:
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Fossilized honeycombed structure on display | |
C. marylandica specimen on display at the National Museum of Natural History | |
Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Order: | †Bennettitales |
Family: | †Cycadeoidaceae |
Genus: | †Cycadeoidea Buckland, 1828 |
Type species | |
†Cycadeoidea megalophylla Buckland | |
Species | |
See text. | |
Synonyms[1] | |
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Cycadeoidea is an extinct genus of bennettitalean plants known from the Cretaceous (and possibly the Jurassic) of North America, Europe and Asia.[2] They grew as cycad-like plants with a short trunk topped with a crown of leaves.
Taxonomy
William Buckland originally gave the name to two species he described, C. megalophylla and C. microphylla, in 1828, seeing characteristics akin to living cycads.[3] Robert Brown and Mr. Loddiges of Loddiges Nursery in Hackney had seen living cycads and urged him to name the fossils after them.[4] The original type specimens of both taxa have not been located, so new type material has been chosen.[4] Classification of species within the genus is very difficult, as several trunks have been described as species, and a further fourteen species are known from detached leaf remains, but there is no way of telling which leaf remains go with which trunk remains (if any).[4]
Description
Fossil sites and species
The following species have been described:
- Cycadeoidea cylindrica (Brongn. ex Mantell)[1]
- Cycadeoidea deshayesii (Saporta)[1]
- Cycadeoidea duvalii (Pomel) Doweld[1]
- Cycadeoidea gibsoniana (Carruthers) Seward
- Cycadeoidea maccafferyi[5]
- Cycadeoidea megalophylla Buckland[4]
- Cycadeoidea microphylla Buckland[4]
The Isle of Portland was the site of the first specimens recovered, described by Buckland as C. megalophylla (the type species) and C. microphylla.[4] Cycadeoidea gibsoniana is a species collected from Lower Greensand from Luccombe Chine on the Isle of Wight, notable for the remarkable state of preservation of its plant parts. The original specimen was found by Thomas Field Gibson and was extensively broken and sliced to examine its anatomy.[4][6] Four well preserved cones of a species C. maccafferyi were uncovered in the Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation on Vancouver and Hornby Island in British Columbia.[5] The distribution of the species is primarily Cretaceous in age, though some remains of the genus may date to the Jurassic.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Doweld, Alexander B. (3 May 2016). "The nomenclature of (fossil Spermatophyta: Cycadeoideopsida)". Taxon. 65 (2): 372–379. doi:10.12705/652.16.
- ↑ Liu, Fengxiang; Yang, Xiaonan; Cheng, Yeming (2022-01-12). "Anatomical Study of Cretaceous, Permineralized, Bennettitalean Fossils from Heilongjiang Province, NE China". Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition. 96 (5): 1755–6724.14902. doi:10.1111/1755-6724.14902. ISSN 1000-9515. S2CID 253205097.
- ↑ Buckland, William (1836). Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology. Vol. 1. London: William Pickering. p. 496. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Watson, Joan; Lydon, Susannah J (2004). "The bennettitalean trunk genera Cycadeoidea and Monanthesia in the Purbeck, Wealden and Lower Greensand of southern England: A reassessment". Cretaceous Research. 25: 1–26. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2003.10.003.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Rothwell, G. W.; Stockey, R. A. (2002). "Anatomically preserved Cycadeoidea (Cycadeoidaceae), with a reevaluation of systematic characters for the seed cones of Bennettitales". American Journal of Botany. 89 (9): 1447–1458. doi:10.3732/ajb.89.9.1447. PMID 21665746.
- ↑ "Thomas Gibson & Thomas Field Gibson". Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
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- Bennettitales
- Jurassic plants
- Cretaceous plants
- Prehistoric plant genera
- Jurassic life of Europe
- Jurassic life of North America
- Cretaceous life of Europe
- Cretaceous life of North America
- Jurassic first appearances
- Cretaceous extinctions
- Taxa named by William Buckland
- Fossil taxa described in 1828
- Prehistoric plants of North America