The first record of a bryophyte in Upper Cretaceous amber from Taimyr, northern Siberia: Taimyrobryum martynoviorum gen. et sp. nov. (Bryopsida)
Abstract
Cretaceous bryophyte fossils are known only from a few localities and only a few are known in ultrastructural fidelity. We describe a fossil moss gametophyte from Upper Cretaceous Taimyr amber and place it in the fossil genus Taimyrobryum martynoviorum gen. et sp. nov. (Bryopsida). Its unbranched, somewhat zig-zagged stems with distantly spaced, spreading, narrowly lanceolate leaves and the unbranched costa match the gross morphology of Dicranidae; however, the uniformly prosenchymatous leaf cells contradict an affiliation to this subclass. The Yantardakh in the Taimyr Peninsula is the fourth and northernmost Cretaceous amber locality yielding inclusions of bryophytes.
- Publication:
-
Cretaceous Research
- Pub Date:
- October 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.cretres.2016.04.005
- Bibcode:
- 2016CrRes..65...25I
- Keywords:
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- Dicranidae;
- Fossil;
- Moss;
- Santonian