Fossil Record 15(2): 115-120, doi: 10.1002/mmng.201200009
The sporophyte of the Paleogene liverwort Frullania varians Caspary
J. Heinrichs‡, M. von Konrat§, H. Grabenhorst|, A. R. Schmidt¶‡ Albrecht-von-Haller-Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Abteilung Systematische Botanik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany§ Department of Botany, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, United States of America| Nachtigallenweg 9, 29342 Wienhausen, Germany¶ Courant Research Centre Geobiology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
© J. Heinrichs, M. von Konrat, H. Grabenhorst, A. R. Schmidt. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Heinrichs J, von Konrat M, Grabenhorst H, Schmidt AR (2012) The sporophyte of the Paleogene liverwort Frullania varians Caspary. Fossil Record 15(2): 115-120. https://doi.org/10.1002/mmng.201200009 |  |
Abstract
We document the sporophyte of the extinct Frullania varians based on an inclusion in Late Oligocene Bitterfeld amber from Germany. The sporophyte consists of a short, ca. 45 µm thick seta that exceeds the perianth only slightly; the elongate-ovate, acute valves of the opened capsule are about 225 µm long, curved backwards and consist of an epidermal and an internal layer. Cell walls of both layers possess nodulose trigones. Several trumpet-shaped, unispiral elaters are fixed to the upper third of the internal valve layer. They have a length of ca. 150 µm and a diameter of 15–18 µm. A subglobose structure of 19 µm diameter is interpreted as a degraded spore. Fossil elaters and spores as well as capsule wall details of Frullaniaceae are described for the first time.
doi:10.1002/mmng.201200009
doi:10.1002/mmng.201200009