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A silicified Todea trunk (Osmundaceae) from the Eocene of Patagonia

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Abstract

The Osmundaceae family is the sister group to all other extant leptosporangiate ferns. Its rich fossil record has enabled detailed reconstructions of the evolutionary history of the group. Fossil evidence for today’s Southern Hemisphere subtribe Todeinae, however, has been difficult to accumulate, with only two unambiguous fossil occurrences of modern Todea. Here, we describe a silicified Todea stem from the Eocene Laguna del Hunco lagerstätte of Patagonia. The stem contains a heterogeneous outer cortex with distinct fibrous rings surrounding the leaf traces, indicative of subtribe Todeinae; nests of thick-walled fibres associated with departing leaf traces together with the sclerenchymatous pith and with abundant sclerenchyma fibres in the inner stipe cortex enable assignment to Todea. The stem differs from T. tidwellii—the only other known fossil Todea stem described thus far—mainly in lacking sclerenchyma lining the adaxial concavity of the stipe bundle. Co-occurrence with sterile foliage fragments indicates that the stem may belong to Todea amissa, a species that was initially described based on frond compressions from the same deposits. Our finding corroborates the widely disjunct Gondwanan distribution of Todea across the Southern Hemisphere in the past, and provides an impetus to re-assess genetic divergence between the relictual African and Australasian populations of Todea barbara today in order to resolve the evolutionary history of the group more clearly. Finally, this first report of structurally preserved plant remains from Laguna del Hunco highlights the thus far untapped potential for anatomical preservation in this important fossil lagerstätte.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the initial finder of the specimen Pablo Puerta (Trelew) for his keen eyes during exploratory field work; Mariano Caffa (Trelew) for preparation of thin sections; Eduardo Ruigomez (Trelew) for collection support; N. Rubén Cúneo (Trelew) for permission to study the material; N. Rubén Cúneo and Peter Wilf (University Park, PA) for helpful discussion; Gar W. Rothwell (Corvallis, OR) and an anonymous reviewer for constructive criticism on an earlier version of the manuscript; and Mike Reich (Munich) for editorial handling. Financial support for this project was provided by the Swedish Research Council (VR Project 2014-5232 to B.B.) and the National Science Foundation (Grant DEB-1556666 to Peter Wilf).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palaeobotany Research Group, Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie, Westfälische Wilhelm-Universität Münster, Heisenbergstrasse 2, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Benjamin Bomfleur

  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET), Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio, Avenida Fontana 140, 9100, Trelew, Chubut, Argentina

    Ignacio Escapa

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  1. Benjamin Bomfleur
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  2. Ignacio Escapa
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Correspondence to Benjamin Bomfleur.

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Handling Editor: Mike Reich.

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Bomfleur, B., Escapa, I. A silicified Todea trunk (Osmundaceae) from the Eocene of Patagonia. PalZ 93, 543–548 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-019-00479-6

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