Mixoxylon australe gen. et sp. nov., a unique homoxylous wood with non-angiosperm affinity from the Lower Cretaceous of Antarctica (Albian, James Ross Island)

Abstract A unique homoxylous wood is described from the Albian Lewis Hill Member of the Whisky Bay Formation on James Ross Island as Mixoxylon australe Chernomorets & Sakala, gen. et sp. nov. This fossil taxon shows an unusual combination of features in having indistinct growth rings with a sign...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antarctic Science
Main Authors: Chernomorets, Oleksandra, Sakala, Jakub
Other Authors: Czech Geological Survey
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2021
Subjects:
Geology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Oceanography
Ross Island
Whisky Bay
Lewis Hill
Antarc*
Antarctic Science
Antarctica
James Ross Island
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102021000389
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102021000389
Description
Summary:Abstract A unique homoxylous wood is described from the Albian Lewis Hill Member of the Whisky Bay Formation on James Ross Island as Mixoxylon australe Chernomorets & Sakala, gen. et sp. nov. This fossil taxon shows an unusual combination of features in having indistinct growth rings with a significantly wider earlywood zone than latewood zone, tracheids with scalariform to araucarian pitting, exclusively uniseriate rays with distinctly pitted both tangential and horizontal walls and araucarioid to podocarpoid cross-field pits. Its characteristics are intermediate between Phoroxylon Sze and Sahnioxylon Bose & Sah, so a new genus is proposed. Its systematic affinities are dubious, but it represents the southernmost evidence of the homoxylous Mesozoic wood with scalariform pitting described so far.

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