EVIDENCE OF SIMPLE POLYEMBRYONY IN PERMIAN SEEDS FROM ANTARCTICA

• Published in: American Journal of Botany
• Main Authors: Smoot, Edith L., Taylor, Thomas N.
• Other Authors: National Science Foundation
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1986
• Subjects: Beardmore; Beardmore Glacier; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1986.tb08552.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fj.1537-2197.1986.tb08552.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1986.tb08552.x; http://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/chorus/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fj.1537-2197.1986.tb08552.x

Well‐preserved seeds with multiple embryos are described from the Permian of the Beardmore Glacier region, Antarctica. The seeds are platyspermic, winged and contain two archegonia in the micropylar end. Each archegonium contains an undifferentiated, multicellular embryo at a comparable stage of development. Attached to one end of each embryo is an elongate structure similar to the suspensor in extant gymnosperms. This discovery represents the earliest example of simple polyembryony yet recorded from the fossil record.