The Early Cretaceous Mesofossil Flora Of Catefica, Portugal: Angiosperms
Author
Friis, Else Marie
Author
Crane, Peter R.
Author
Pedersen, Kaj Raunsgaard
Author
Mendes, Mário Miguel
Author
Kvaček, Jiří
text
Fossil Imprint
2022
2022-12-20
78
2
341
424
http://dx.doi.org/10.37520/fi.2022.016
journal article
10.37520/fi.2022.016
2533-4069
7522801
Goczania rugosa
E.M.FRIIS, P.R.CRANE et K.R.PEDERSEN, 2019
Text-fig. 20e–h
D e s c r i p t i o n a n d r e m a r k s.
Goczania rugosa
is represented in the Catefica mesofossil flora by two anthers and an isolated pollen sac with pollen grains in situ (Textfig. 20e–h). Identical pollen also occurs in pollen clumps and coprolites. The anther is short and broad, about
0.6 mm
long and
0.55 mm
wide, dithecate and tetrasporangiate (
Text-fig. 20e
). As in the
type
material from Torres Vedras, the inner wall of the anthers of the Catefica specimen and the in situ pollen grains show numerous small, spherical orbicules with a finely spiny surface ornamentation (
Text-fig. 20f
).
Text-fig. 18. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of fragmentary flower of
Catanthus
dolichostemon
(a, b) and flower of
Saportanthus
parvus
(c, d); Catefica locality, Portugal. a, b) Fragment of flower bud showing bulky tepals (te) and fleshy stamens (st) in ventral (a) and lateral (b) views; note the long stamen base and small anther with extrorse anther dehiscence (arrows); c, d) Flower in lateral (c) and oblique apical (d) views showing inferior ovary and eight bulky tepals almost completely enclosing the stamens and styles. Specimens, Catefica MM92-P0159 (a, b), Catefica MM285-P0331 (c, d). Scale bars = 300 Μm (a–d).
The pollen grains are oblate, circular to elliptical in equatorial outline, about 17 µm in diameter and monocolpate (
Text-fig. 20f–h
). The colpus is short with an irregular margin (
Text-fig. 20h
). The exine is tectate with the tectum covered with densely spaced microechinae that occur singly without merging with their neighbors (
Text-fig. 20f–h
).
A f f i n i t y a n d o t h e r o c c u r r e n c e s. Pollen of the
Goczania
type
has been found on the stigma and surface of
Appomattoxia
fruits in the Torres Vedras mesofossil flora and also on fruits of
Appofructus
E.M.FRIIS, P.R.CRANE et K.R.PEDERSEN from Torres Vedras (
Friis et al. 2019a
).
Goczania-
type
pollen has also been found on the stigma and surface of
Appomattoxia
fruits from the Puddledock mesofossil flora of eastern North America.
Appomattoxia
and
Appofructus
are both thought to be related to
Piperales
(
Friis et al. 1995
,
2019a
).
Goczania rugosa
was first described from the Torres Vedras mesofossil flora (
Friis et al. 2019a
) and the anthers with in situ pollen from Catefica are closely similar to the
type
material. Small differences, such as the slightly larger size of the pollen grains and slightly smoother pollen wall in the Catefica specimens, may be related to differences in preservation, with the Torres Vedras material being slightly more shrunken. Two other species of
Goczania
occur with
Goczania rugosa
at Torres Vedras, but they differ in details of the supratectal ornamentation of the pollen wall (
Friis et al. 2019a
).
Pollen grains of
Goczania rugosa
have also been observed in palynological strew preparations of the Catefica microfossil assemblages.