ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 3537
Poster No. = 955


A NEW MAJOR CLADE FROM THE LOWER DEVONIAN OF GASPE, QUEBEC, CANADA


*Hotton, C.l., NCBI/NLM/NIH, Bethesda, Md 20894 & NMNH, Washington DC, 20560, USA, and Newton, A.E., the Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, UK.


We here describe a new fossil embryophyte of Emsian age (ca. 385 mya) from the Battery Point Formation of Gaspe, Canada. The compression fossils are ca. 5 mm long, and consist of distal portions of naked axes with up to 6 orders of branching, terminating in fusiform structures each topped by a small knob with an apical pore. Branching is cymose. The apical knob could be interpreted as a moss archegonium, in which case the fusiform structure represents gametophyte tissue surrounding a developing but completely enclosed sporangium. Alternatively, the fusiform structures could be sporangia, although lacking spores. The axes are cuticularized, but lack recognizable vascular tissue and stomata. Regardless of precise interpretation, these fossils represent a major new embryophyte clade.


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