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New occurrence of the Late Jurassic Xenoxylon wood in the Sichuan Basin, southern China: wood anatomy, and paleobiodiversity implications

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Abstract

Although a significant member of the Mesozoic xylogical flora, Xenoxylon Gothan has been widely reported from northern China, it is striking that its occurrence in southern China is rarely documented. Recently, three species of Xenoxylon have been described from the Upper Triassic and the Middle Jurassic in Guangdong, Sichuan, and Yunnan of southern China, separately. However, Xenoxylon wood has up to now never been documented in the Upper Jurassic of southern China. Here, we report new fossil wood materials from the Upper Jurassic Penglaizhen Formation in Shehong City, Sichuan Basin, southern China, with well-preserved xenoxylean radial tracheid pitting and window-like cross-field pitting. Due to a novel combination of radial tracheid pitting, cross-field pitting and ray height, a new species, Xenoxylon shehongense Xie, Wang et Tian sp. nov., is recognized here. The discovery of this new species leads to a further understanding for the yet poorly documented Xenoxylon diversity in southern China and the diversity pattern of the latiporosum-group of the genus Xenoxylon.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. This work was co-sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 41790454, 41702004, 41972007, 42002023), Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000), the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (20191103, 20192101, 20172103).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Aowei Xie & Yongdong Wang

  2. Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Aowei Xie & Dieter Uhl

  3. College of Palaeontology, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang, 110086, China

    Ning Tian

  4. School of Geography and Tourism, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao, 276826, China

    Xiaoping Xie

  5. The 11th Geological Brigade of Sichuan, Dazhou, 635000, China

    Shuna Xi

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  1. Aowei Xie
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Correspondence to Yongdong Wang.

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Xie, A., Wang, Y., Tian, N. et al. New occurrence of the Late Jurassic Xenoxylon wood in the Sichuan Basin, southern China: wood anatomy, and paleobiodiversity implications. PalZ 98, 5–15 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-023-00671-9

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