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Cycadeoidea

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Cycadeoidea
Temporal range: Cretaceous
Fossilized honeycombed structure on display
C. marylandica specimen on display at the National Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Order: †Bennettitales
Family: †Cycadeoidaceae
Genus: †Cycadeoidea
Buckland, 1828
Type species
†Cycadeoidea megalophylla Buckland
Species

See text.

Synonyms[1]
  • Mantellia Pomel
  • Cylindropodium Saporta
  • Bennettites Carruth.
  • Clathropodium Saporta
  • Cycadea Capellini & Solms
  • Schizopodium Morière
  • Tysonia Fontaine

Cycadeoidea is an extinct genus of bennettitalean plants known from the Cretaceous (and possibly the Jurassic) of North America, Europe and Asia.[2] They grew as cycad-like plants with a short trunk topped with a crown of leaves.

Taxonomy

William Buckland originally gave the name to two species he described, C. megalophylla and C. microphylla, in 1828, seeing characteristics akin to living cycads.[3] Robert Brown and Mr. Loddiges of Loddiges Nursery in Hackney had seen living cycads and urged him to name the fossils after them.[4] The original type specimens of both taxa have not been located, so new type material has been chosen.[4]

Classification of species within the genus is very difficult, as several trunks have been described as species, and a further fourteen species are known from detached leaf remains, but there is no way of telling which leaf remains go with which trunk remains (if any).[4]

Description

Diagram of the strobilus of Cycadeoidea dacotensis (1918)

Cycadeoidea stems were "short and barrel-shaped," with a "crown of pinnate leaves" atop the stem.[5] The trunk was covered in imbricate leaf bases, similar to the trunks of cycads. The exact nature of the leaves that topped the stem is unclear, as the trunks are preserved without the adult leaves. The reproductive structures are bisexual (i.e. having a combined male and female organ), and are deeply sunken into the stem on the axils of the leaves, and they are surrounded by scales and embedded within the persistent leaf bases.[4] The genus may have undergone self-pollination, although it is also possible that insects were involved in the process.[5] The size and shape of the trunk has been used to distinguish species, however forms intermediate between two species suggest the two might be merely different-sized or aged plants can't be excluded.[4]

Fossil sites and species

The following species have been described:

  • Cycadeoidea cylindrica (Brongn. ex Mantell)[1]
  • Cycadeoidea deshayesii (Saporta)[1]
  • Cycadeoidea duvalii (Pomel) Doweld[1]
  • Cycadeoidea gibsoniana (Carruthers) Seward
  • Cycadeoidea maccafferyi[6]
  • Cycadeoidea megalophylla Buckland[4]
  • Cycadeoidea microphylla Buckland[4]

The Isle of Portland was the site of the first specimens recovered, described by Buckland as C. megalophylla (the type species) and C. microphylla.[4]

Cycadeoidea gibsoniana is a species collected from Lower Greensand from Luccombe Chine on the Isle of Wight, notable for the remarkable state of preservation of its plant parts. The original specimen was found by Thomas Field Gibson and was extensively broken and sliced to examine its anatomy.[4][7]

Four well preserved cones of a species C. maccafferyi were uncovered in the Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation on Vancouver and Hornby Island in British Columbia.[6]

The distribution of the species is primarily Cretaceous in age, though some remains of the genus may date to the Jurassic.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Doweld, Alexander B. (3 May 2016). "The nomenclature of (fossil Spermatophyta: Cycadeoideopsida)". Taxon. 65 (2): 372–379. doi:10.12705/652.16.
  2. ^ Liu, Fengxiang; Yang, Xiaonan; Cheng, Yeming (2022-01-12). "Anatomical Study of Cretaceous, Permineralized, Bennettitalean Fossils from Heilongjiang Province, NE China". Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition. 96 (5): 1755–6724.14902. doi:10.1111/1755-6724.14902. ISSN 1000-9515. S2CID 253205097.
  3. ^ Buckland, William (1836). Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology. Vol. 1. London: William Pickering. p. 496. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Watson, Joan; Lydon, Susannah J (2004). "The bennettitalean trunk genera Cycadeoidea and Monanthesia in the Purbeck, Wealden and Lower Greensand of southern England: A reassessment". Cretaceous Research. 25: 1–26. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2003.10.003.
  5. ^ a b Palmer, Douglas; et al. (2009). Prehistoric life : the definitive visual history of life on earth (1st American ed.). New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-7566-5573-0.
  6. ^ a b Rothwell, G. W.; Stockey, R. A. (2002). "Anatomically preserved Cycadeoidea (Cycadeoidaceae), with a reevaluation of systematic characters for the seed cones of Bennettitales". American Journal of Botany. 89 (9): 1447–1458. doi:10.3732/ajb.89.9.1447. PMID 21665746. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  7. ^ "Thomas Gibson & Thomas Field Gibson". Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
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