Open AccessXI. New bennettitean cones from the British cretaceous
Publication year - 1918
Publication title -
philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9266
pISSN - 0264-3960
DOI - 10.1098/rstb.1918.0011
Subject(s) - cretaceous , paleontology , cone (formal languages) , group (periodic table) , type (biology) , perfection , geology , biology , philosophy , physics , mathematics , epistemology , algorithm , quantum mechanics
This new species ofBennettites , the first petrified remains of the group to be found in the Gault of this country, is based on the structure of an ovulate cone. While it it true that only a portion of one cone is available, yet even this fragment includes hundreds of exquisitely preserved seeds which throw much new light on the structure of that most important group, the Bennettitales. Since the historic description so many years ago of the one and only specimen of the type of the group,B. Gibsonianus (see Carruthers, 1870), no other well petrified cone has been found in this country, and knowledge of the details of the fructifications of the group has been advanced chiefly by studies of the FrenchB. Morierei , and a number of American forms. Beautiful as some of these are, the present specimen surpasses anything yet known in the Bennettitales for perfection of detailed preservation. Many points in the new species are novel, and on variations of less magnitude new fossil genera have been founded; but as in essentials the fruit conforms to the broad type “Bennettites ,” I prefer to use that widely known generic name for the new species. Thematerial from which the following description is compiled consists of a single fragment of a large ovulate cone. This was cut into as many sections as possible, but yielded only two longitudinal and seven transverse sections. Magnified by two diameters, five of this series of transverse sections are shown on Plate 19.