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A NEW CONIFER FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
Author(s) -
Page Virginia M.
Publication year - 1973
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.1537-2197.1973.tb05959.x
Subject(s) - pith , cretaceous , biology , mesozoic , bark (sound) , paleontology , botany , fossil wood , structural basin , ecology
Stems with inner bark, wood, pith, and leaves from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of central California are described. The name Margeriella cretacea gen. et sp. n. is assigned to the fossils. The leaves are long, narrow, spirally arranged, and each contains three resin canals, a thick vascular sheath, and a dense mesophyll. Only first‐year wood is present in the stem. The large pith is composed of large cells among which are scattered clusters of even larger darkly colored cells. Leaf epidermis and wood characters suggest affinities with the Taxodiaceae, but the structure of the pith and the internal structure of the leaves have no counterpart among modern or known fossil members of that family. The fossil is regarded as an extinct form possibly belonging to the large taxodioid complex thought by some workers to have existed in the Mesozoic.