Aequitriradites: The Mark of the Cretaceous

Diagram of Aequitriradites ornatus, from Upshaw (1963).

The Cretaceous period is best known in popular culture as the time of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, of Pteranodon and Quetzalcoatlus, of Elasmosaurus and mosasaurs. But it was also, in an arguably even more significant way, the time of Aequitriradites.

Aequitriradites is the fossil represented in the diagram at the top of this post. It is not very large: at its largest, the species shown above is about a tenth of a millimetre across (Upshaw 1963). It is, in fact, the spore from a liverwort. The vegetative parts of liverworts mostly do not have much of a fossil record, being soft and prone to decay, though long-time readers may recall a suggestion that this spotty fossil record was occasionally dramatic (alas, general opinion seems to have not been swayed). However, their spores are more resistent, and hence may be abundant as fossils. Because it is rarely possible to tell exactly which plant they came from, fossil spores (and pollen) are classified as form taxa, parallel to the classification of other plant fossils. Aequitriradites species are characterised by a membranous flange (a zona) running around the outside of the spore, together with a triradiate laesura pattern (the fissures that mark where the spore opens when it germinates) on one face. Depending on the species, the laesurae may be well-marked or faint. There may also be an opening in the spore wall at the apex of the face opposite the laesurae (Cookson & Dettmann 1961). It has been suggested that the otherwise unidentified liverworts that produced Aequitriradites spores were probably related to the modern liverwort order Sphaerocarpales, and Archangelsky & Archangelsky (2005) compared Aequitriradites to the spores of the aquatic genus Riella.

Alternate faces of specimens of Aequitriradites plicatus, from Archangelsky & Archangelsky (2005).

The abundance of plant spores and pollen is such that they are commonly used as 'index fossils', indicators of the age of the rock they are found in. Aequitriradites contains various species throughout the Cretaceous period (species assigned to this genus from the Triassic seem to have since been re-classified). Li (2014) identified the appearance of Aequitriradites spinulosus in the very latest Jurassic as one of the better indicators of the start of the Cretaceous period in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in China. Aequitriradites species seem to have been most abundant in the Early Cretaceous, becoming rarer in the Late Cretaceous. Establishing the latest appearance of a spore taxon in the fossil record can be difficult, because of the possibility of re-working (fossil spores being disassociated from their original deposit and re-buried in a later one), but non-reworked examples of Aequitriradites in the latter part of the Late Cretaceous were alluded to by Askin (1990). TLDR: If you've got Aequitriradites, you've got Cretaceous.

REFERENCES

Archangelsky, S., & A. Archangelsky. 2005. Aequitriradites Delcourt & Sprumont y Couperisporites Pocock, esporas de hepáticas, en el Cretácico Temprano de Patagonia, Argentina. Rev. Mus. Argentino Cienc. Nat., n. s. 7 (2): 119-138.

Askin, R. A. 1990. Cryptogam spores from the Upper Campanian and Maastrichtian of Seymour Island, Antarctica. Micropaleontology 36 (2): 141-156.

Cookson, I. C., & M. E. Dettmann. 1961. Reappraisal of the Mesozoic microspore genus Aequitriradites. Palaeontology 4 (3): 425-427, pl. 52.

Li, J. 2014. Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous palynological successions in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, China. In; Rocha, R., et al. (eds) STRATI 2013, pp. 1197-1202. Springer Geology.

Upshaw, C. F. 1963. Occurrence of Aequitriradites in the Upper Cretaceous of Wyoming. Micropaleontology 9 (4): 427-431.

Some Like It Cold (Taxon of the Week: Saccogynidium vasculosum)

I haven't introduced the Taxon of the Week post with a Name the Bug challenge this week because (a) even I'm not evil enough to make you try and identify liverworts, and (b) I haven't been able to find any illustrations of the specific liverwort concerned. The figures below from Gao et al. (2001) show other species in the same genus from China:



Leafy liverworts are small plants that are superficially similar in appearance to mosses. Like mosses, they grow in moist localities and lack well-developed supporting vascular tissue. Leafy liverworts can often be distinguished from mosses by having a different arrangement of leaves (liverwort leaves often grow in lateral rows, moss leaves in spirals), lacking a median vein in the leaf and potentially having teeth or lobes on the edge of the leaf. Liverworts also have different reproductive structures from mosses; instead of opening with a cap, liverwort spore capsules usually split down the sides.

Saccogynidium vasculosum is a species of liverwort restricted to the Falkland Islands and the very southernmost part of South America (Engel, 1990; Frey & Schaumann, 2002). Earlier authors referred to it as Lophocolea vasculosa but this was due to confusion with a different species, L. elata, from which it can be distinguished by the presence of small papillae (bumps) covering the leaves, a feature of the genus Saccogynidium (Engel, 1978). Saccogynidium is also distinguished from related genera by producing the female reproductive organs inside a fleshy protective covering called a marsupium (one is shown in the lower part of the figure above). Saccogynidium vasculosum is distinguished from other species in the genus by having finer papillae on the leaves, and having the tips of the leaves narrowly rounded rather than two-pointed.

Whar's really notable about Saccogynidium is its distribution (Schuster, 1972). As well as S. vasculosum, the Falkland Islands are home to S. australe, a species also found in New Zealand. Other species are found in Tasmania and south-east Asia. Interesting questions could be asked whether the current distribution of Saccogynidium is due to Gondwanan ancestry (in which case the disjoint distribution of S. australe might argue for incredibly slow rates of evolution) or to more recent dispersal, something some authors seem to have dismissed out of hand.

REFERENCES

Engel, J. J. 1978. A taxonomic and phytogeographic study of Brunswick Peninsula (Strait of Magellan) Hepaticae and Anthocerotae. Fieldiana: Botany 41.

Engel, J. J. 1990. Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Hepaticae and Anthocerotophyta: a taxonomic and phytogeographic study. Fieldiana: Botany, new series 25.

Frey, W., & F. Schaumann. 2002. Records of rare southern South American bryophytes. Studies in austral temperate rain forest bryophytes 18. Nova Hedwigia 74 (3-4): 533-543.

Gao, C., T. Cao & M.-J. Lai. 2001. The genus Saccogynidium (Geocalycaceae, Hepaticae) in China. Bryologist 104 (1): 126-129.

Schuster, R. M. 1972. Continental movements, "Wallace's Line" and Indomalayan-Australasian dispersal of land plants: some eclectic concepts. Botanical Review 38 (1): 3-86.

Prototaxites: A Giant that Never Was?

Reconstruction of Prototaxites as columnar perrenial fungus from Hueber (2001), painted by Mary Parrish.

Nearly two years ago, I presented a post on Prototaxites, a mysterious fossil of the late Silurian, the earliest truly large terrestrial organism known from the fossil record. In that post (which I'd recommend reading before this one) I discussed the possibility that Prototaxites might have represented a giant fungus but a recent publication by Graham et al. (2010) presents a new alternative interpretation of Prototaxites. If they are correct, the Silurian may never be the same again.


Thalli of the liverwort Marchantia. Photo from here.

In Graham et al.'s estimation, Prototaxites should not be classed with the fungi but with the liverworts. Liverworts are small, often mosslike plants of moist habitats. Members of one group of liverworts, the thallose liverworts, lack any distinction between leaves and stem but grow as a flattened thallus anchored to the ground by rhizoids (rootlets) on the lower surface. Liverworts are one of the earliest diverging groups of land plants and they or their ancestors would have certainly been part of the Silurian flora. One group of Silurian plant fossils, the nematophytes, possess a microstructure of criscrossing tubular filaments; Graham et al. (2004) demonstrated that this structure was also found in the decaying remains of modern thallose liverworts, as the upper tissue of the thallus rotted away to leave the more resistant rhizoids and connective tissue. The microstructure of Prototaxites is also similar to that of nematophytes, to the extent that some palaeontologists have regarded nematophytes as Prototaxites leaves (this interpretation is not currently supported as nematophytes have never been found actually attached to Prototaxites). But modern liverworts lack strong supporting tissue and would be pushing to reach an inch in height - how could they have produced the eight-metre columns recorded for Prototaxites?


The largest known Prototaxites fossil (at least as of 2001), photographed by Charles Meissner in Saudi Arabia. From Hueber (2001).

A transverse section of Prototaxites shows a ring structure like that found in a tree trunk. Hueber (2001), who interpreted Prototaxites as a perennial fungal fruiting body, felt that this ring structure also resembled tree rings in indicating discontinuous growth by the organism. Graham et al. (2010) interpret the ring structure differently. They suggest that large mats of thallose liverworts covered the Silurian landscape. These mats could become detached from their substrate by agents such as wind and rain, and start to roll up as they decayed. As they rolled, they would form the large columns that, after being compressed by burial and fossilised, would eventually be identified as Prototaxites.


Reconstruction by Kandis Elliot of Silurian liverwort mats being rolled by wind, gravity and/or water movement to form 'Prototaxites'. From Graham et al. (2010).

Under this interpretation of Prototaxites, the fungal hyphal structures identified by Hueber (2001) within Prototaxites sections would be those of fungi growing among the liverwort mats. Boyce et al. (2007) identified significant variations in carbon isotope ratios between Prototaxites individuals as supportive of fungal identification because they suggested heterotrophy (nutrients being obtained from the surrounding environment rather than being produced by the organism itself); however, Graham et al. (2010) establish that thallose liverworts may grow heterotrophically when conditions encourage it. The liverwort interpretation is also more consistent with the size of most Prototaxites filaments (much larger than found in modern fungi) and also explains the occasional discovery of other land plants embedded in Prototaxites columns - these would have been growing among the mats and become swept up when the mats became rolled, like Silurian Cleopatras.

I find this new interpretation intriguing, if a little difficult to accept outright. Prototaxites is represented by a reasonable number of specimens (I don't know the actual number, but thirteen species have been named from numerous localities around the world) - were the conditions that would have lead to mat-rolling common enough to have produced that number of fossils? I wonder if it would be worth investigating how Prototaxites specimens compare in abundance to nematophyte specimens and what that might tell us about the likelihood of 'Prototaxites' formation from liverwort mats. Certainly, the only thing that could be more intriguing than the existence of these giant pillars from so early in the earth's history would be if it turned out that they never existed at all.

REFERENCES

Boyce, C. K., C. L. Hotton, M. L. Fogel, G. D. Cody, R. M. Hazen, A. H. Knoll & F. M. Hueber. 2007. Devonian landscape heterogeneity recorded by a giant fungus. Geology 35: 399–402.

Graham, L. E., M. E. Cook, D. T. Hanson, K. B. Pigg & J. M. Graham. 2010. Structural, physiological, and stable carbon isotopic evidence that the enigmatic Paleozoic fossil Prototaxites formed from rolled liverwort mats. American Journal of Botany 97 (2): 268-275.

Graham, L. E., L. W. Wilcox, M. E. Cook & P. G. Gensel. 2004. Resistant tissues of modern marchantioid liverworts resemble enigmatic Early Paleozoic microfossils. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 101 (30): 11025-11029.

Hueber, F. M. 2001. Rotted wood–alga–fungus: the history and life of Prototaxites Dawson 1859. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 116 (1-2): 123-158.