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Zooidogamy in the Late Permian genus Glossopteris

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An Erratum to this article was published on 30 September 2004

Abstract

We describe details of anatomically preserved fossil glossopterid ovules from the Late Permian of Queensland, Australia, that contain several pollen tubes at various stages of releasing flagellated sperm. Each sperm is approximately 12.7 μm long and 13.9 μm wide, with a conspicuous spiral structure comprised of a series of dots that resemble the position of basal bodies of flagella aligned along the multilayered structure (MLS). This configuration is similar to the helically arranged flagella in the sperm of cycads, Ginkgo, and many pteridophytes. However, the motile gametes of Glossopteris are considerably smaller than those of Ginkgo and cycads, and more similar in size, number of basal bodies, and number of gyres in their helix to pteridophyte forms. Glossopteris thus shares the intermediate stage of motile male gamete formation and apparently that of haustorial pollen tubes with cycads and Ginkgo.

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Fig. 2 8–21

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Hiromichi Yano for preparing the microscopic slides. The field collection at Homevale was supported by Grants for Overseas Survey from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology No. 04041034 to Prof. Masahiro Kato, University of Tokyo, and No. 08041135 to Dr. Motomi Ito, University of Tokyo, to whom we are deeply grateful. The work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology No. 07640933 to H.N., and NSF grant BSR-9006625 and an Arizona State University Faculty Grant-in-Aid to K.B.P.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, 1-13-27 Kasuga, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 112-8551, Japan

    Harufumi Nishida

  2. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Kathleen B. Pigg

  3. Sankyo Labo Service Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

    Kensuke Kudo

  4. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    John F. Rigby

Authors
  1. Harufumi Nishida
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  2. Kathleen B. Pigg
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  3. Kensuke Kudo
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  4. John F. Rigby
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harufumi Nishida.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10265-004-0176-0

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Nishida, H., Pigg, K.B., Kudo, K. et al. Zooidogamy in the Late Permian genus Glossopteris. J Plant Res 117, 323–328 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-004-0164-4

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