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Fertile structures with in situ spores of a dipterid fern from the Triassic in southern China

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Abstract

Clathropteris was a typical dipterid fern with well documented fossil record and was widely dispersed during the Mesozoic; however, our knowledge of fertile structures including in situ spores for this genus is still very limited. Here we report well-preserved compression specimens of Clathropteris obovata Oishi from the Late Triassic of Guangyuan, Sichuan Province, China. The specimens show round to oval and exindusiate sori, vertical to oblique annuli in sporangia, and in situ trilete spores with verrucate and baculate sculptures, which are comparable to dispersed spore genera of Converrucosisporites and Conbaculatisporites. Comparisons of relevant fossil taxa suggest that specimens of C. obovata from Triassic of China provide for the first time in Asia the detailed fertile structures with in situ spore characters of dipterid fossil Clathropteris. Unlike living Dipteris, Mesozoic fossils of Dipteridaceae show a high diversity and a range of complex morphology of in situ spores, thus are significant for the evolutionary links between Dipteridaceae and other related fern clade, including Gleicheniaceae and Matoniaceae of the Gleicheniales.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Y. Q. Mao (NIGPAS, Nanjing), Frédéric Pautz (Director, Botanical Garden of Lyon), Frédéric Danet (Curator of Lyon Herbarium) (LYJB) and Katherine Dilcher for helpful assistances. We also acknowledge Dr. Mike Pole for helpful suggestion and constructive comments of the manuscript. This study was jointly supported by the State Key Basic Research Program of China (2012CB822003), National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC 41272010, 40972008 and 40472004), the Knowledge Innovation Project of CAS (KZCX-2-YW-154), and the Team Program from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Wang, Y., Li, L., Guignard, G. et al. Fertile structures with in situ spores of a dipterid fern from the Triassic in southern China. J Plant Res 128, 445–457 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-015-0708-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-015-0708-9

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