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Mixoxylon australe gen. et sp. nov., a unique homoxylous wood with non-angiosperm affinity from the Lower Cretaceous of Antarctica (Albian, James Ross Island)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2021

Oleksandra Chernomorets Open the ORCID record for Oleksandra Chernomorets [Opens in a new window]  and
Jakub Sakala
Oleksandra Chernomorets*
Affiliation:
Charles University, Faculty of Science, Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic
Jakub Sakala
Affiliation:
Charles University, Faculty of Science, Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic Czech Geological Survey, Klárov 3, 118 21 Prague, Czech Republic
*
oleksandra.chernomorets@natur.cuni.cz
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Abstract

A unique homoxylous wood is described from the Albian Lewis Hill Member of the Whisky Bay Formation on James Ross Island as Mixoxylon australe Chernomorets & Sakala, gen. et sp. nov. This fossil taxon shows an unusual combination of features in having indistinct growth rings with a significantly wider earlywood zone than latewood zone, tracheids with scalariform to araucarian pitting, exclusively uniseriate rays with distinctly pitted both tangential and horizontal walls and araucarioid to podocarpoid cross-field pits. Its characteristics are intermediate between Phoroxylon Sze and Sahnioxylon Bose & Sah, so a new genus is proposed. Its systematic affinities are dubious, but it represents the southernmost evidence of the homoxylous Mesozoic wood with scalariform pitting described so far.

Keywords

Abietineentüpfelungaraucarian and scalariform tracheid pittingfossil softwoodJames Ross Basinuniseriate rays
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 33 , Issue 5 , October 2021 , pp. 493 - 501
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Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2021

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