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PALEOZOIC LYCOPSID FRUCTIFICATIONS. III. CONSPECIFICITY OF BRITISH AND NORTH AMERICAN LEPIDOSTROBUS PETRIFACTIONS
Author(s) -
Balbach Margaret Kain
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1967.tb10710.x
Subject(s) - taxon , pennsylvanian , biology , range (aeronautics) , fructification , paleontology , zoology , materials science , structural basin , composite material
A study was made of 30 apparently similar microsporangiate cone specimens of the lycopsid fructification Lepidostrobus found in coal balls of Middle Pennsylvanian age from Illinois and Kansas. None of these specimens was a complete cone, but at least 19 were large enough and well enough preserved to provide information regarding variation both within one cone and among several specimens. The data obtained substantiated the original assumption that all 30 specimens represented one species. Attempts to equate this one species with any of the similar, previously described North American taxa, Lepidostrobus coulteri, L. pulvinatus and Lepidocarpon magnificum ‐microsporangiate form, and the British taxon Lepidostrobus oldhamius , including the forms ( α ), ( β ), ( γ ) and pilosus , revealed that no significant differences existed among any of these taxa. Furthermore, all characteristics described for these taxa were referable to, and well within the range of variation of, the one species here analyzed. Differences among the taxa were found to represent only differences in maturation or normal variation. All these taxa are, therefore, conspecific and are assigned to one species which by priority is named Lepidostrobus oldhamius. The common association of the megasporangiate Lepidocarpon lomaxi with all these miorosporangiate cones, now recognized as representing the single taxon Lepidostrobus oldhamius , is strong evidence for the probability that Lepidocarpon lomaxi and Lepidostrobus oldhamius were produced by the same parent plant species.