Evelyn Kustatscher

The Anisian macroflora from the Northern Dolomites (Kühwiesenkopf / Monte Prà della Vacca, Braies): a first report

The knowledge of Triassic macroflora from the Dolomites mostly concerns the Ladinian, while literature data on Anisian plants are scarce. This gap is filled by the discovery, reported here, of a rich plant deposit from Kuhwiesenkopf / Monte Pra della Vacca (Prags/Braies Dolomites). The fossils occur in a horizon, about 1 m thick, from the lower part of the Dont Formation, a basinal unit mostly constituted by hemipelagic, terrigenous-carbonatic sediments of Pelsonian - Illyrian age. The stratigrafic interval with the plant horizon is Pelsonian in age. A preliminary systematic analysis of the numerous and well preserved specimens has allowed the identification of at least 17 genera. The taxa belong primarily to the Pteridophyta ( Anomopteris, Neuropteridium, Cladophlebis, Crematopteris, ? Marattiopsis ), subordinately to the Cycadophyta ( Bjuvia, Taeniopteris, Dioonitocarpidium, Pterophyllum / Nilssonia ). Coniferophyta are represented by Voltzia , ? Voltzia and Albertia ; the latter genus is recorded herein for the first time in the Middle Triassic of the Dolomites. Besides, two Lycophyta genera (? Isoetites , Lycophyta new taxon), three Pteridospermae genera (? Sagenopteris , Scytophyllum and Peltaspermum ), and one Sphenophyta genus ( Equisetites ) have also been recognized.

TAPHONOMICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE LADINIAN MEGAFLORA AND PALYNOFLORA OF THALE (GERMANY)

Abstract Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions at Thale during the late Ladinian (Middle Triassic) are assessed using both the plant megaflora and palynoflora. These two datasets are necessary because these two different types of assemblages were subjected to different taphonomic biases and together provide a more complete appraisal of Triassic conditions in the study area. The megafossil remains represent a (par)autochthonous flora with large, well-preserved leaf and shoot fragments that indicate relatively limited transport. Most fragments probably belonged to plants growing on river banks. The composition of the rich and diversified megaflora indicates lush vegetation typical of an environment without water stress and probably a high water table. On the other hand, quantitative analyses of the palynological data using different methods (morphogroups and Sporomorph EcoGroup or SEG) show a strong dominance of bisaccate pollen. River or wetland plants are well represented by trilete, laevigate spores and multicellular algae. Since the spores were normally water transported along with the sediment and the pollen grains were wind transported over long distances, but also by water, there are two possible interpretations: (1) the local flora was dominated by ferns within a larger, conifer-dominated, and possibly forested area; (2) time related, the megaflora shows a short-term signal that corresponds to a humid spell during the generally more arid period of Middle and Late Triassic, while the palynoflora shows a longer-term, regional signal.

Plant–insect interactions from Middle Triassic (late Ladinian) of Monte Agnello (Dolomites, N-Italy)—initial pattern and response to abiotic environmental perturbations

The Paleozoic–Mesozoic transition is characterized by the most massive extinction of the Phanerozoic. Nevertheless, an impressive adaptive radiation of herbivorous insects occurred on gymnosperm-dominated floras not earlier than during the Middle to Late Triassic, penecontemporaneous with similar events worldwide, all which exhibit parallel expansions of generalized and mostly specialized insect herbivory on plants, expressed as insect damage on a various plant organs and tissues. The flora from Monte Agnello is distinctive, due to its preservation in subaerially deposited pyroclastic layers with exceptionally preserved details. Thus, the para-autochthonous assemblage provides insights into environmental disturbances, caused by volcanic activity, and how they profoundly affected the structure and composition of herbivory patterns. These diverse Middle Triassic biota supply extensive evidence for insect herbivore colonization, resulting in specific and complex herbivory patterns involving the frequency and diversity of 20 distinctive damage types (DTs). These DT patterns show that external foliage feeders, piercer-and-suckers, leaf miners, gallers, and oviposition culprits were intricately using almost all tissue types from the dominant host plants of voltzialean conifers (e.g., Voltzia), horsetails, ferns (e.g., Neuropteridium, Phlebopteris, Cladophlebis and Thaumatopteris), seed ferns (e.g., Scytophyllum), and cycadophytes (e.g., Bjuvia and Nilssonia).

Floodplain habitats of braided river systems: depositional environment, flora and fauna of the Solling Formation (Buntsandstein, Lower Triassic) from Bremke and Fürstenberg (Germany)

The Solling Formation is the most distinctive unit of the Early Triassic Buntsandstein of the epicontinental Central European Basin. The Solling Formation of Bremke and Fürstenberg has yielded one of the richest and most diversified plant collections of the Middle Buntsandstein to date, one of the oldest floras in Europe after the end-Permian mass extinction. Based on the plant fossils, the Middle Buntsandstein ecosystem from Bremke and Fürstenberg represents not only one of the earliest floras in Europe after the end-Permian extinction but also one of the earliest Triassic occurrences of insect herbivory from any documented flora worldwide and thus provides a rare glimpse into the third pulse of herbivore expansion. Integrated palaeobotanical, palaeontological and sedimentological studies have enabled reconstruction of two different floodplain environmental settings of the Solling Formation, including their vegetation, the plant–insect interactions and revealing how important taphonomy and environmental settings were for the preservation of Middle Buntsandstein plants. At Bremke a levee-crevasse splay complex is reconstructed that tributed into perennial backwsamps and at Fürstenberg unconfined subaerial flows formed a sandy aggradational floodplain with ephemeral ponds. A rich plant community was established and became preserved in backswamps and ponds. This suggests that the scarcity of Buntsandstein floras is clearly related to taphonomical processes and not to extreme environmental conditions under arid or semi-arid climates.

European Jurassic floras: statistics and palaeoenvironmental proxies

Abstract The Jurassic floras of Europe show considerable diversity. To examine the extent of this diversity and its possible causes we used multivariate statistical methods (cluster analysis, PCA, NMDS) to compare all significant Jurassic floras in Europe. Data were based on 770 taxa from 46 fossiliferous occurrences (25 units) from France, Germany, Greenland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Statistical analyses were applied at species level and genus level, and also performed for the major plant groups. The genus cladograms show affinities between different localities based on environmental factors, while the cladograms based on species affinities indicate only taxonomical correlations. The study shows that locality age does not seem to be of paramount importance for floral composition.

Floral Assemblages and Patterns of Insect Herbivory during the Permian to Triassic of Northeastern Italy

To discern the effect of the end-Permian (P-Tr) ecological crisis on land, interactions between plants and their insect herbivores were examined for four time intervals containing ten major floras from the Dolomites of northeastern Italy during a Permian–Triassic interval. These floras are: (i) the Kungurian Tregiovo Flora; (ii) the Wuchiapingian Bletterbach Flora; (iii) three Anisian floras; and (iv) five Ladinian floras. Derived plant–insect interactional data is based on 4242 plant specimens (1995 Permian, 2247 Triassic) allocated to 86 fossil taxa (32 Permian, 56 Triassic), representing lycophytes, sphenophytes, pteridophytes, pteridosperms, ginkgophytes, cycadophytes and coniferophytes from 37 million-year interval (23 m.yr. Permian, 14 m.yr. Triassic). Major Kungurian herbivorized plants were unaffiliated taxa and pteridosperms; later during the Wuchiapingian cycadophytes were predominantly consumed. For the Anisian, pteridosperms and cycadophytes were preferentially consumed, and subordinately pteridophytes, lycophytes and conifers. Ladinian herbivores overwhelming targeted pteridosperms and subordinately cycadophytes and conifers. Throughout the interval the percentage of insect-damaged leaves in bulk floras, as a proportion of total leaves examined, varied from 3.6% for the Kungurian (N = 464 leaves), 1.95% for the Wuchiapingian (N = 1531), 11.65% for the pooled Anisian (N = 1324), to 10.72% for the pooled Ladinian (N = 923), documenting an overall herbivory rise. The percentage of generalized consumption, equivalent to external foliage feeding, consistently exceeded the level of specialized consumption from internal feeding. Generalized damage ranged from 73.6% (Kungurian) of all feeding damage, to 79% (Wuchiapingian), 65.5% (pooled Anisian) and 73.2% (pooled Ladinian). Generalized-to-specialized ratios show minimal change through the interval, although herbivore component community structure (herbivore species feeding on a single plant-host species) increasingly was partitioned from Wuchiapingian to Ladinian. The Paleozoic plant with the richest herbivore component community, the coniferophyte Pseudovoltzia liebeana, harbored four damage types (DTs), whereas its Triassic parallel, the pteridosperm Scytophyllum bergeri housed 11 DTs, almost four times that of P. liebeana. Although generalized DTs of P. liebeana were similar to S. bergeri, there was expansion of Triassic specialized feeding types, including leaf mining. Permian–Triassic generalized herbivory remained relatively constant, but specialized herbivores more finely partitioned plant-host tissues via new feeding modes, especially in the Anisian. Insect-damaged leaf percentages for Dolomites Kungurian and Wuchiapingian floras were similar to those of lower Permian, north-central Texas, but only one-third that of southeastern Brazil. Global herbivore patterns for Early Triassic plant–insect interactions remain unknown.

The Jurassic plant fossils of the Lovisato Collection: preliminary notes

A preliminary account is presented herein of the revision of 473 slabs containing macrofossil plant remains from the Domenico Lovisato plant Collection. The latter is housed in the Museo Sardo di Geologia e Paleontologia “D. Lovisato” of the Università di Cagliari. The material examined encompasses palaeobotanical remains collected from the Genna Selole Formation and from the basal part of the Dorgali Formation, both of Jurassic age at a variety of localities in Barbagia and Sarcidano, eastern Sardinia. A reconstruction is given of the history of the collection, initiated in 1888, and the scientific studies of the flora by a variety of palaeobotanists. Based on a preliminary revision of the specimens the following genera are recognized: Phlebopteris Brongniart, 1836, Hausmannia Dunker, 1846, Coniopteris Brongniart, 1849, Cladophlebis Brongniart, 1849, Sagenopteris Presl in Sternberg, 1838, Cycadeospermum Saporta, 1875, Ptilophyllum Morris in Grant, 1840, Williamsonia Carruthers, 1870 emend. Harris, 1969, Weltrichia Braun, 1847 emend. Harris, 1969, Taeniopteris Brongniart, 1828, Czekanowskia Heer, 1876 emend. Harris et al., 1974, Brachyphyllum Brongniart, 1828, Elatocladus Halle, 1913 emend. Harris, 1979 and Carpolithes Brongniart, 1822. Some plant remains have been putatively assigned to the following genera: Ptilozamites Nathorst, 1878 emend. Antevs, 1914, Nilssonia Brongniart, 1825, Pterophyllum Brongniart, 1828 and Geinitzia Endlicher, 1847. Several of these genera are known also from the Jurassic flora of Yorkshire and from other Jurassic floras of Italy. RIASSUNTO [La flora giurassica della Collezione Lovisato: nota preliminare] In questo lavoro vengono presentati i dati preliminari della revisione sistematica di 473 reperti contenenti resti macroscopici di piante fossili della Collezione Lovisato, conservata presso il Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia Domenico Lovisato, dell’Università degli Studi di Cagliari. La collezione comprende resti fossili raccolti in diverse località del Sarcidano e della Barbagia, nella Sardegna orientale, e provenienti dalla Formazione di Genna Selole e dalla porzione basale della Formazione di Dorgali, entrambe di età medio giurassica. Viene ricostruita la storia della collezione e degli studi effettuati su di essa dai vari studiosi che si sono succeduti nel tempo, a partire dal 1888, anno di inizio delle raccolte e dei campionamenti da parte del Prof. Domenico Lovisato. La revisione tassonomica preliminare consente di fornire una lista aggiornata a livello generico delle forme riconosciute nella collezione, che sono: Phlebopteris Brongniart, 1836, Hausmannia Dunker, 1846, Coniopteris Brongniart, 1849, Cladophlebis Brongniart, 1849, Sagenopteris Presl in Sternberg, 1838, Cycadeospermum Saporta, 1875, Ptilophyllum Morris in Grant, 1840, Williamsonia Carruthers, 1870 emend. Harris, 1969, Weltrichia Braun, 1847 emend. Harris, 1969, Taeniopteris Brongniart, 1828, Czekanowskia Heer, 1876 emend. Harris et al., 1974, Brachyphyllum Brongniart, 1828, Elatocladus Halle, 1913 emend. Harris, 1979 e Carpolithes Brongniart, 1822. Anche i generi Ptilozamites Nathorst, 1878 emend. Antevs, 1914, Nilssonia Brongniart, 1825, Pterophyllum Brongniart, 1828 e Geinitzia Endlicher, 1847 possono essere dubitativamente segnalati per questa flora. Un numero consistente di generi segnalati per il Giurassico della Sardegna sono noti sia nella flora giurassica dello Yorkshire (Inghilterra) sia nelle altre flore giurassiche del territorio italiano, come ad esempio presso la località di Rotzo, in Veneto.

Permian ginkgophyte fossils from the Dolomites resemble extant O-ha-tsuki aberrant leaf-like fructifications of Ginkgo biloba L

BackgroundStructural elucidation and analysis of fructifications of plants is fundamental for understanding their evolution. In case of Ginkgo biloba, attention was drawn by Fujii in 1896 to aberrant fructifications of Ginkgo biloba whose seeds are attached to leaves, called O-ha-tsuki in Japan. This well-known phenomenon was now interpreted by Fujii as being homologous to ancestral sporophylls. The common fructification of Ginkgo biloba consists of 1-2 (rarely more) ovules on a dichotomously divided stalk, the ovules on top of short stalklets, with collars supporting the ovules. There is essentially no disagreement that either the whole stalk with its stalklets, collars and ovules is homologous to a sporophyll, or, alternatively, just one stalklet, collar and ovule each correspond to a sporophyll. For the transition of an ancestral sporophyll resembling extant O-ha-tsuki aberrant leaves into the common fructification with stalklet/collar/ovule, evolutionary reduction of the leaf lamina of such ancestral sporophylls has to be assumed. Furthermore, such ancestral sporophylls would be expected in the fossil record of ginkgophytes.ResultsFrom the Upper Permian of the Bletterbach gorge (Dolomites, South Tyrol, Italy) ginkgophyte leaves of the genus Sphenobaiera were discovered. Among several specimens, one shows putatively attached seeds, while other specimens, depending on their state of preservation, show seeds in positions strongly suggesting such attachment. Morphology and results of a cuticular analysis are in agreement with an affiliation of the fossil to the ginkgophytes and the cuticle of the seed is comparable to that of Triassic and Jurassic ones and to those of extant Ginkgo biloba. The Sphenobaiera leaves with putatively attached seeds closely resemble seed-bearing O-ha-tsuki leaves of extant Ginkgo biloba. This leads to the hypothesis that, at least for some groups of ginkgophytes represented by extant Ginkgo biloba, such sporophylls represent the ancestral state of fructifications.ConclusionsSome evidence is provided for the existence of ancestral laminar ginkgophyte sporophylls. Homology of the newly found fossil ginkgophyte fructifications with the aberrant O-ha-tsuki fructifications of Ginkgo biloba is proposed. This would support the interpretation of the apical part of the common Ginkgo biloba fructification (stalklet/collar/ovule) as a sporophyll with reduced leaf lamina.

Late Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) brackish to freshwater habitats at a fluvial-dominated delta plain (Seinstedt, Lower Saxony, Germany)

The historic Late Triassic outcrops at Fuchsberg and Langenberg near Seinstedt (Lower Saxony, Germany) are constrained to the Norian/Rhaetian boundary interval by means of conchostracan and palynomorph biostratigraphy. A comprehensive revision revealed a fluvial-dominated delta plain that formed in response to the successive transgression of the ‘Rhaetian Sea’ and received siliciclastics from southern source areas. At Fuchsberg and Langenberg, the distal lower delta plain is exposed and brackish subaqueous delta plain wetlands, mouthbar/distributary channel complexes and interdistributary bay subenvironments are reconstructed. Delta formation was controlled by bifurcation of distributary channels and avulsion of delta lobes. A diverse ecosystem is documented: a rich invertebrate fauna of limulids (1 taxon), insects (at least 20 taxa of 9 orders), malacostracans and conchostracans (several taxa) and a vertebrate fauna of amphibians (at least 1 taxon), sharks (9 taxa) and osteichthyan fishes (at least 6 taxa). In particular, fossiliferous interdistributary bay lithologies detail trophic systems of autochthonous subaqueous and parautochthonous riparian habitats. Abundant remnants of cycadophytes, ferns, horsetails and large vertebrates from Fuchsberg and adjacent outcrops of the Seinstedt area enable the reconstruction of vegetated upstream environments at the upper delta plain and floodplain.

A Selaginellites from the Rhaetian of Wüstenwelsberg (Upper Franconia, Germany)

Sterile shoots and a microsporangiate strobilus of a new herbaceous lycophyte, Selaginellites coburgensis nov. spec., are described from the Rhaetian (uppermost Triassic) of Wustenwelsberg near Cob ...