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...
Published in: | Antarctic Science |
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Main Authors: | , |
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2021
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102021000389 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102021000389 |
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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