Journal articles: 'Bryophytes fossiles'

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Tomescu, Alexandru M. F. "The Early Cretaceous Apple Bay flora of Vancouver Island: a hotspot of fossil bryophyte diversity." Botany 94, no. 9 (September 2016): 683–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2016-0054.

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The pre-Cenozoic bryophyte fossil record is significantly sparser than that of vascular plants or Cenozoic bryophytes. This situation has been traditionally attributed to a hypothesized low preservation potential of the plants. However, instances of excellent pre-Cenozoic bryophyte preservation and the results of experiments simulating fossilization contradict this traditional interpretation, suggesting that bryophytes have good preservation potential. Studies of an anatomically preserved Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) plant fossil assemblage on Vancouver Island (British Columbia), at Apple Bay, focusing on the cryptogamic flora, have revealed an abundant bryophyte component. The Apple Bay flora hosts one of the most diverse bryophyte assemblages worldwide, with at least nine distinct moss types (polytrichaceous, leucobryaceous, tricostate), one complex thalloid liverwort, and two other thalloid plants (representing bryophyte or pteridophyte gametophytes), which contribute a significant fraction of biodiversity to the pre-Cenozoic fossil record of bryophytes. These results (i) corroborate previous observations and studies, indicating that the preservation potential of bryophytes is much better than traditionally thought; (ii) indicate that the bryophyte fossil record is incompletely explored and many more bryophyte fossils are hidden in the rock record, awaiting discovery; and (iii) suggest that the paucity of the pre-Cenozoic bryophyte fossil record is primarily a reflection of inadequate paleobryological capacity.

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Edwards, Dianne. "The role of Mid-Palaeozoic mesofossils in the detection of early bryophytes." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 355, no. 1398 (June 29, 2000): 733–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2000.0613.

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Recently discovered Silurian and Devonian coalified mesofossils provide an additional source of data on early embryophytes. Those reviewed in this paper are considered of some relevance to understanding the early history of bryophytes while highlighting the difficulties of recognizing bryophytes in often very fragmentary fossils. The first group comprises sporophytes in which terminal sporangia contain permanent dyads and tetrads. Such spores (cryptospores) are similar to those found dispersed in older Ordovician and Silurian strata, when they are considered evidence for a land vegetation of embryophytes at a bryophyte grade. The phylogenetic significance of plants, where the axes associated with both dyadand tetrad–containing sporangia are branching, a character state not found in extant bryophytes, is discussed. The second group comprises axial fossils, many with occasional stomata, in which central conducting strands include G–type tracheids and a number of novel types of elongate elements not readily compared with those of any tracheophyte. They include smooth–walled, evenly thickened elongate elements as well as those with numerous branching +/− anastomosing projections into the lumen. Some of the latter bear an additional microporate layer, but the homogenized lateral walls between adjacent cells are never perforate. Such cells, which occur in various combinations in central strands, are compared with the leptoids and hydroids of mosses, hydroids of liverworts and presumed water–conducting cells in coeval Lower Devonian plants such as Aglaophyton . It is concluded that lack of information on the chemistry of their walls hampers sensible assessment of their functions and the affinities of the plants. Finally, a minute fossil, comprising an elongate sporangium in which a central cylindrical cavity containing spores and possible elaters terminates in a complex poral dehiscence apparatus, is used to exemplify problems of identifying early bryophytes. It is concluded that further progress necessitates the discovery of pre–Upper Silurian fossils with well–preserved anatomy, as well as a re–evaluation of criteria used to assess existing and new Devonian fossils for bryophyte affinity.

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France, Hazel. "A Survey of Bryophytes and their Management in the Ferns and Fossils House at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh." Sibbaldia: the International Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture, no. 17 (February 5, 2019): 29–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.24823/sibbaldia.2019.266.

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This paper is derived from a research project produced during the author’s studies for a BSc in Horticulture with Plantsmanship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). The body of work represents findings from a floristic survey of naturally occurring bryophytes in the Ferns and Fossils House at RBGE. This site merited close study due to the known presence of at least two southern hemisphere species along with many native species. Horticultural staff were interviewed about current bryophyte management within glasshouse displays. Recommendations are made for raising the status of bryophytes in botanic gardens and expanding the scope of living collections. This report includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, survey results, interview summary and conclusion.

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Amaral, Paula G. C., Mary Bernardes De Oliveira, Fresia Ricardi-Branco, and Jean Broutin. "Presencia de Bryopsida fértil en los niveles Westfalianos del subgrup Itararé, Cuenca de Paraná, Brasil." Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution 25, no. 1 (August 17, 2004): 101–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/bde.25.1.12.

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The bryophyte fossils are rare, mainly in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in spite of being present since the Silurian Period. In the Division Bryophyta, the fossils that belong to the Class Bryopsida are recognized since the Carboniferous, but they are extremely scarce. They are plentiful only in Permian sediments, in the Petchora, Kuznetsk and Russian Platform basins, also in Antarctica, Karoo basin (the last in South Africa) and India. Identified at the genus Dwykea, gametophyte specimens bearing pleurocarpous sporophyte were recovered from the lowermost levels of Itararé Subgroup, near Campinas city, S. Paulo State. These fossils correspond to the first register of bryophyte female gametophyte for the Carboniferous Period. The microflora in association with these fossils allow correlations of these levels to the Palynozone Ahrensisporites cristatus of Westphalian age. Related to proglacial sediments, they may correspond to a tundra vegetation covering the Northeastern border of Paraná Basin, during the Westphalian.

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Zander, Richard H. "Evolutionary analysis of five bryophyte families using virtual fossils." Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid 66, no. 2 (December 10, 2009): 263–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/ajbm.2224.

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Mendes, Mário Miguel, France Polette, Pedro P. Cunha, Pedro Dinis, and David J. Batten. "A new Hauterivian palynoflora from the Vale Cortiço site (central Portugal), and its palaeoecological implications for western Iberia." Acta Palaeobotanica 59, no. 2 (December 1, 2019): 215–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2019-0010.

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Abstract Palynofloral assemblages are an invaluable source of information about the interactions between fossil plants and their environments. Here we describe a new Early Cretaceous palynoflora from the Lusitanian Basin in the Estremadura region of central western Portugal. A palynological assemblage of 28 genera and 40 species was extracted from 14 samples collected in the Vale Cortiço clay pit complex near the small village of Ameal (Torres Vedras Municipality). The source is a dark grey mudstone layer belonging to the lower part of the Santa Susana Formation, which is considered to be of early Hauterivian age. The palynoflora is dominated by fern spores and gymnosperm pollen. Bryophyte and lycophyte palynomorphs are also present but subordinate. Angiosperm pollen and algal or dinoflagellate cysts were not recognised in the studied samples. The palynological assemblage represents mixed conifer forest with the ground cover and understorey vegetation dominated by ferns, with patchy occurrences of bryophytes and lycophytes. A riverine environment with surrounding vegetation of open woodland and ground cover primarily of ferns is strongly indicated for the region.

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Morris, Jennifer L., Mark N. Puttick, James W. Clark, Dianne Edwards, Paul Kenrick, Silvia Pressel, Charles H. Wellman, Ziheng Yang, Harald Schneider, and Philip C. J. Donoghue. "The timescale of early land plant evolution." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, no. 10 (February 20, 2018): E2274—E2283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719588115.

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Establishing the timescale of early land plant evolution is essential for testing hypotheses on the coevolution of land plants and Earth’s System. The sparseness of early land plant megafossils and stratigraphic controls on their distribution make the fossil record an unreliable guide, leaving only the molecular clock. However, the application of molecular clock methodology is challenged by the current impasse in attempts to resolve the evolutionary relationships among the living bryophytes and tracheophytes. Here, we establish a timescale for early land plant evolution that integrates over topological uncertainty by exploring the impact of competing hypotheses on bryophyte−tracheophyte relationships, among other variables, on divergence time estimation. We codify 37 fossil calibrations for Viridiplantae following best practice. We apply these calibrations in a Bayesian relaxed molecular clock analysis of a phylogenomic dataset encompassing the diversity of Embryophyta and their relatives within Viridiplantae. Topology and dataset sizes have little impact on age estimates, with greater differences among alternative clock models and calibration strategies. For all analyses, a Cambrian origin of Embryophyta is recovered with highest probability. The estimated ages for crown tracheophytes range from Late Ordovician to late Silurian. This timescale implies an early establishment of terrestrial ecosystems by land plants that is in close accord with recent estimates for the origin of terrestrial animal lineages. Biogeochemical models that are constrained by the fossil record of early land plants, or attempt to explain their impact, must consider the implications of a much earlier, middle Cambrian–Early Ordovician, origin.

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Wellman, Charles H., and Jane Gray. "The microfossil record of early land plants." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 355, no. 1398 (June 29, 2000): 717–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2000.0612.

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Dispersed microfossils (spores and phytodebris) provide the earliest evidence for land plants. They are first reported from the Llanvirn (Mid–Ordovician). More or less identical assemblages occur from the Llanvirn (Mid–Ordovician) to the late Llandovery (Early Silurian), suggesting a period of relative stasis some 40 Myr in duration. Various lines of evidence suggest that these early dispersed microfossils derive from parent plants that were bryophyte–like if not in fact bryophytes. In the late Llandovery (late Early Silurian) there was a major change in the nature of dispersed spore assemblages as the separated products of dyads (hilate monads) and tetrads (trilete spores) became relatively abundant. The inception of trilete spores probably represents the appearance of vascular plants or their immediate progenitors. A little later in time, in the Wenlock (early Late Silurian), the earliest unequivocal land plant megafossils occur. They are represented by rhyniophytoids. It is only from the Late Silurian onwards that the microfossil / megafossil record can be integrated and utilized in interpretation of the flora. Dispersed microfossils are preserved in vast numbers, in a variety of environments, and have a reasonable spatial and temporal fossil record. The fossil record of plant megafossils by comparison is poor and biased, with only a dozen or so known pre–Devonian assemblages. In this paper, the early land plant microfossil record, and its interpretation, are reviewed. New discoveries, novel techniques and fresh lines of inquiry are outlined and discussed.

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Moisan, Philippe, Sebastian Voigt, Jörg W. Schneider, and Hans Kerp. "New fossil bryophytes from the Triassic Madygen Lagerstätte (SW Kyrgyzstan)." Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 187 (November 2012): 29–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2012.08.009.

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Edwards, Dianne, and Paul Kenrick. "The early evolution of land plants, from fossils to genomics: a commentary on Lang (1937) ‘On the plant-remains from the Downtonian of England and Wales'." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370, no. 1666 (April 19, 2015): 20140343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0343.

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During the 1920s, the botanist W. H. Lang set out to collect and investigate some very unpromising fossils of uncertain affinity, which predated the known geological record of life on land. His discoveries led to a landmark publication in 1937, ‘On the plant-remains from the Downtonian of England and Wales’, in which he revealed a diversity of small fossil organisms of great simplicity that shed light on the nature of the earliest known land plants. These and subsequent discoveries have taken on new relevance as botanists seek to understand the plant genome and the early evolution of fundamental organ systems. Also, our developing knowledge of the composition of early land-based ecosystems and the interactions among their various components is contributing to our understanding of how life on land affects key Earth Systems (e.g. carbon cycle). The emerging paradigm is one of early life on land dominated by microbes, small bryophyte-like organisms and lichens. Collectively called cryptogamic covers, these are comparable with those that dominate certain ecosystems today. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .

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Su, Danyan, Lingxiao Yang, Xuan Shi, Xiaoya Ma, Xiaofan Zhou, S. Blair Hedges, and Bojian Zhong. "Large-Scale Phylogenomic Analyses Reveal the Monophyly of Bryophytes and Neoproterozoic Origin of Land Plants." Molecular Biology and Evolution 38, no. 8 (April 19, 2021): 3332–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab106.

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Abstract The relationships among the four major embryophyte lineages (mosses, liverworts, hornworts, vascular plants) and the timing of the origin of land plants are enigmatic problems in plant evolution. Here, we resolve the monophyly of bryophytes by improving taxon sampling of hornworts and eliminating the effect of synonymous substitutions. We then estimate the divergence time of crown embryophytes based on three fossil calibration strategies, and reveal that maximum calibration constraints have a major effect on estimating the time of origin of land plants. Moreover, comparison of priors and posteriors provides a guide for evaluating the optimal calibration strategy. By considering the reliability of fossil calibrations and the influences of molecular data, we estimate that land plants originated in the Precambrian (980–682 Ma), much older than widely recognized. Our study highlights the important contribution of molecular data when faced with contentious fossil evidence, and that fossil calibrations used in estimating the timescale of plant evolution require critical scrutiny.

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Janssens, Jan A., and Paul H. Glaser. "The bryophyte flora and major peat-forming mosses at Red Lake peatland, Minnesota." Canadian Journal of Botany 64, no. 2 (February 1, 1986): 427–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b86-058.

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Red Lake peatland, a vast mire complex in northern Minnesota, contains 21 Sphagnum species, 47 other mosses, and 17 liverwort taxa in its present flora, and several other species present only as fossils in the peat. Four broad vegetation types are recognized: (i) bogs, (ii) poor fens, (iii) forested rich fens, and (iv) rich-fen pools (flarks). These vegetation types are differentiated by water chemistry and bryophyte associations. Most of the major peat-forming moss species are common, circumboreally distributed taxa, and they are distinct in their ecology. Shifts in some of their habitat requirements, however, are evident among different geographic regions of the northern hemisphere. In bogs the major peat-formers are Sphagnum species, while on minerotrophic sites in Red Lake peatland they belong mainly to the family Amblystegiaceae.

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BECHTELER, JULIA, ANDERS HAGBORG, DIETMAR QUANDT, LARS SÖDERSTRÖM, and MATT VON KONRAT. "In Memoriam to Jochen Heinrichs (1969–2018)." Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution 40, no. 2 (December 27, 2018): 121. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/bde.40.2.11.

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This special issue of Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution is dedicated to Jochen Heinrichs (1969–2018) in commemoration of his outstanding contributions to bryology. His work spanned a diverse spectrum of topics that will be reflected in this special issue by 10 research papers. Therein, and in honor of Jochen, the moss genus Jochenia gen. nov. (Schlesak et al. 2018), the liverwort species Frullania heinrichsii sp. nov. (Atwood et al. 2018), as well as the liverwort amber fossil Geocalyx heinrichsii sp. nov. (Katagiri 2018) are introduced to the scientific community.

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FELDBERG, KATHRIN, ALINA S. MÜLLER, ALFONS SCHÄFER-VERWIMP, MATT VON KONRAT, ALEXANDER R. SCHMIDT, and JOCHEN HEINRICHS. "Frullania grabenhorstii sp. nov., a fossil liverwort (Jungermanniopsida: Frullaniaceae) with perianth from Bitterfeld amber." Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution 40, no. 2 (December 27, 2018): 91. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/bde.40.2.7.

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Frullaniaceae are the most diverse family of leafy liverworts preserved in amber and are known from several deposits dating from the Miocene to the Early Cretaceous. In the fossil record, Frullania is represented by 15 species as well as the extinct genera Pseudofrullania, Protofrullania and Kaolakia. Here, we describe another species of Frullania from Bitterfeld amber (Germany) as Frullania grabenhorstii sp. nov. A combination of characters associated with the leaf lobe, leaf lobule, underleaf, branching patterns, and perianth distinguishes it from all other known extant and extinct taxa. Many characters of the new fossil are shared with F. subg. Frullania sect. Australes, especially the morphologically similar extant species F. incumbens and F. subincumbens-both of Australasia. Another similar species, Fullania densiloba, occurs in Japan. These distribution patterns reinforce previously described affinities of the Baltic and Bitterfeld bryophyte floras to the extant flora of Asia and Australasia. This pattern has been found in several taxa, e.g., Notoscyphus, Nipponolejeunea, and Metacalypogeia. The new fossil is compared with other species from Bitterfeld, Baltic, and Rovno amber, which show significant morphological differences. In addition to the description, we provide an overview of the family Frullaniaceae in different amber deposits.

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Kenrick, P. "The relationships of vascular plants." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 355, no. 1398 (June 29, 2000): 847–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2000.0619.

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Recent phylogenetic research indicates that vascular plants evolved from bryophyte–like ancestors and that this involved extensive modifications to the life cycle. These conclusions are supported by a range of systematic data, including gene sequences, as well as evidence from comparative morphology and the fossil record. Within vascular plants, there is compelling evidence for two major clades, which have been termed lycophytes (clubmosses) and euphyllophytes (seed plants, ferns, horsetails). The implications of recent phylogenetic work are discussed with reference to life cycle evolution and the interpretation of stratigraphic inconsistencies in the early fossil record of land plants. Life cycles are shown to have passed through an isomorphic phase in the early stages of vascular plant evolution. Thus, the gametophyte generation of all living vascular plants is the product of massive morphological reduction. Phylogenetic research corroborates earlier suggestions of a major representational bias in the early fossil record. Megafossils document a sequence of appearance of groups that is at odds with that predicted by cladogram topology. It is argued here that the pattern of appearance and diversification of plant megafossils owes more to changing geological conditions than to rapid biological diversification.

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Frahm, Jan-Peter. "An evaluation of the bryophyte flora of the Azores." Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution 26, no. 1 (August 12, 2005): 57–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/bde.26.1.12.

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The diversity of bryophytes on the different islands of the Azores varies much between 104 and 324 species. Attempts have been made to explain the heterogenity of the bryoflora. There is a correlation between species numbers and age of the islands in the way that the youngest islands (Pico) has the lowest species numbers in spite of the fact that it is the highest island. The species numbers of the other islands are correlated with the maximum elevation and with the size of the islands. The liverwort-moss ratio varies between 1.21 and 1.67 and shows a distinct humidity gradient between the islands. The floristic affinities between the islands are calculated by a cluster analysis. They show no correlation with the location of the islands (nearest neighbour), size, age, elevation or species numbers, which indicates that the species composition is mainly determined by chance. Ten species (2,3%) are endemic to the Azores and 14 species (including one genus) are endemic to the Macaronesian Islands. Some of the endemics are questionable, others may occur elsewhere in the tropics under a different name, but there is fossil prove that the others are relicts from the Tertiary which survived extinction during Quaternary in Europe.

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Miller, Norton G., and Ray W. Spear. "Late-Quaternary history of the alpine flora of the New Hampshire White Mountains." Géographie physique et Quaternaire 53, no. 1 (October 2, 2002): 137–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/004854ar.

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Abstract A distinctive flora of 73 species of vascular plants and numerous bryophytes occurs in the ca. 20 km 2 of alpine tundra in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. The late- Quaternary distribution of these plants, many of which are disjuncts, was investigated by studies of pollen and plant macrofossils from lower Lakes of the Clouds (1 542 m) in the alpine zone of Mount Washington. Results were compared with pollen and macrofossils from lowland late-glacial deposits in western New England. Lowland paleofloras contained fossils of 43 species of vascular plants, 13 of which occur in the contemporary alpine flora of the White Mountains. A majority of species in the paleoflora has geographic affinities to Labrador, northern Québec, and Greenland, a pattern also apparent for mosses in the lowland deposits. The first macrofossils in lower Lakes of the Clouds were arctic-alpine mosses of acid soils. Although open-ground mosses and vascular plants continued to occur throughout the Holocene, indicating that alpine tundra persisted, fossils of a low-elevation moss Hylocomiastrum umbratum are evidence that forest (perhaps as krummholz) covered a greater area near the basin from 7 500 to 3 500 yBP. No calcicolous plants were recovered from sediments at lower Lakes of the Clouds. Climatic constraints on the alpine flora during the Younger Dryas oscillation and perhaps during other cold-climate events and intervening periods of higher temperature may have led to the loss of plant species in the White Mountain alpine zone. Late-glacial floras of lowland western New England were much richer than floras of areas above treeline during late-glacial time and at the present.

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Heinrichs, Jochen, Dale H. Vitt, Alfons Schäfer-Verwimp, Eugenio Ragazzi, Giovanni Marzaro, David A. Grimaldi, Paul C. Nascimbene, Kathrin Feldberg, and Alexander R. Schmidt. "The Moss Macromitrium Richardii (Orthotrichaceae) with Sporophyte and Calyptra Enclosed in Hymenaea Resin from the Dominican Republic." Polish Botanical Journal 58, no. 1 (July 1, 2013): 221–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/pbj-2013-0022.

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Abstract Dominican amber is an important source for Early Miocene bryophytes. We report the moss Macromitrium richardii Schwägr., an extant representative of the Orthotrichaceae, from the Dominican amber collection of the American Museum of Natural History. This species is currently a widespread Neotropical epiphyte. The specimen includes several gametophytes and sporophytes, and represents the first fossil record of Orthotrichaceae. Alongside the Macromitrium shoots we observed several fragments of the liverworts Cheilolejeunea antiqua and Frullania sp. The unusual thermal behavior of the resin sample initially led to doubts about the Miocene age of the specimen, but chemical analyses of the Hymenaea resin provides evidence that the specimen represents a highly oxidized sample of Miocene Dominican amber rather than an artificially thermally-treated subfossil resin (copal). Our inclusion demonstrates the exceptional preservation potential of tree resin, but our observations also suggest that provenance (including any possibility that a modern resin has been thermally treated to make it appear older) should be scrutinized when single pieces with atypical thermal behavior and exceptionally well-preserved extant morphotypes come to light.

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Wang, Wenlei, Ren He, Tianli Yang, Yunchu Hu, Ning Zhang, and Can Yang. "Three-dimensional mesoporous calcium carbonate–silica frameworks thermally activated from porous fossil bryophyte: adsorption studies for heavy metal uptake." RSC Advances 8, no. 45 (2018): 25754–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8ra04825h.

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Strother, Paul K. "Cryptospores: The Origin and Early Evolution of the Terrestrial Flora." Paleontological Society Papers 6 (November 2000): 3–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1089332600000681.

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The Cryptogamic, or spore-producing, plants of today are composed of three nonvascular, bryophyte groups (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) and several vascular groups (ferns, club mosses, and horsetails). All of these plants produce abundant spores, which serve as propagules for dispersing and, to some extent, preserving plants through periods of ecological stress. Plant spores are typically formed as the end products of meiosis (reduction division) from a dividing sporocyte, or spore mother cell (smc). Because of this, they typically occur in groups of four, with each individual spore bearing a characteristic trilete, or Y-shaped mark on its common contact surface. Spore walls, composed of an inert, heterogeneous polymer called sporopollenin, are extremely resistant to the chemical vicissitudes of the terrestrial environment. This property of typical plant spores ultimately allows them to be quite abundant in fine grained clastic rocks. Although fossilized spores represent only a small part of the once-living plant, in many cases, they represent an important component of the plant fossil record, especially when the preservation of macroscopic tissues is lacking.

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Thummel, Ryan V., William H. Brightly, and Caroline A. E. Strömberg. "Evolution of phytolith deposition in modern bryophytes, and implications for the fossil record and influence on silica cycle in early land plant evolution." New Phytologist 221, no. 4 (November 26, 2018): 2273–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.15559.

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Langeveld, Bram W., Dick Mol, Grant D. Zazula, Barbara Gravendeel, Marcel Eurlings, Crystal N. H. McMichael, Dick Groenenberg, et al. "A multidisciplinary study of a Late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) midden from Yukon, Canada." Quaternary Research 89, no. 1 (November 20, 2017): 333–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/qua.2017.93.

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AbstractMiddens (nests and caches) of Late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii) that are preserved in the permafrost of Beringia archive valuable paleoecological data. Arctic ground squirrels selectively include the plant material placed in middens. To account for this selectivity bias, we used a multi-proxy approach that includes ancient DNA (aDNA) and macro- and microfossil analyses. Here, we provide insight into Pleistocene vegetation conditions using macrofossils, pollen, phytoliths and non-pollen palynomorphs, and aDNA collected from one such midden from the Yukon Territory (Canada), which was formed between 30,740 and 30,380 cal yr BP. aDNA confirmed the midden was constructed by U. parryii. We recovered 39 vascular plant and bryophyte genera and 68 fungal genera from the midden samples. Grass and other herbaceous families dominated vegetation assemblages according to all proxies. aDNA data yielded several records of vascular plants that are outside their current biogeographic range, while some of the recovered fungi yielded additional evidence for local occurrence of Picea trees during glacial conditions. We propose that future work on fossil middens should combine the study of macro- and microfossils with aDNA analysis to get the most out of these environmental archives.

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Bippus, Alexander C., Ignacio H. Escapa, Peter Wilf, and Alexandru M. F. Tomescu. "Fossil fern rhizomes as a model system for exploring epiphyte community structure across geologic time: evidence from Patagonia." PeerJ 7 (December 12, 2019): e8244. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8244.

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Background In extant ecosystems, complex networks of ecological interactions between organisms can be readily studied. In contrast, understanding of such interactions in ecosystems of the geologic past is incomplete. Specifically, in past terrestrial ecosystems we know comparatively little about plant biotic interactions besides saprotrophy, herbivory, mycorrhizal associations, and oviposition. Due to taphonomic biases, epiphyte communities are particularly rare in the plant-fossil record, despite their prominence in modern ecosystems. Accordingly, little is known about how terrestrial epiphyte communities have changed across geologic time. Here, we describe a tiny in situ fossil epiphyte community that sheds light on plant-animal and plant-plant interactions more than 50 million years ago. Methods A single silicified Todea (Osmundaceae) rhizome from a new locality of the early Eocene (ca. 52 Ma) Tufolitas Laguna del Hunco (Patagonia, Argentina) was studied in serial thin sections using light microscopy. The community of organisms colonizing the tissues of the rhizome was characterized by identifying the organisms and mapping and quantifying their distribution. A 200 × 200 µm grid was superimposed onto the rhizome cross section, and the colonizers present at each node of the grid were tallied. Results Preserved in situ, this community offers a rare window onto aspects of ancient ecosystems usually lost to time and taphonomic processes. The community is surprisingly diverse and includes the first fossilized leafy liverworts in South America, also marking the only fossil record of leafy bryophyte epiphytes outside of amber deposits; as well as several types of fungal hyphae and spores; microsclerotia with possible affinities in several ascomycete families; and evidence for oribatid mites. Discussion The community associated with the Patagonian rhizome enriches our understanding of terrestrial epiphyte communities in the distant past and adds to a growing body of literature on osmundaceous rhizomes as important hosts for component communities in ancient ecosystems, just as they are today. Because osmundaceous rhizomes represent an ecological niche that has remained virtually unchanged over time and space and are abundant in the fossil record, they provide a paleoecological model system that could be used to explore epiphyte community structure through time.

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Miller, Ian M., and Leo J. Hickey. "The Fossil Flora of the Winthrop Formation (Albian–Early Cretaceous) of Washington State, USA. Part I: Bryophyta and Pteridophytina." Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 49, no. 2 (October 2008): 135–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.3374/0079-032x-49.2.135.

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Slater, Sam M., and Charles H. Wellman. "A quantitative comparison of dispersed spore/pollen and plant megafossil assemblages from a Middle Jurassic plant bed from Yorkshire, UK." Paleobiology 41, no. 4 (September 2015): 640–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pab.2015.27.

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AbstractDetailed quantitative data has previously been collected from plant megafossil assemblages from a Middle Jurassic (Aalenian) plant bed from Hasty Bank, North Yorkshire, UK. We conducted a similar analysis of palynological dispersed sporomorph (spore and pollen) assemblages collected from the same section using the same sampling regime: 67 sporomorph taxa were recorded from 50 samples taken at 10 cm intervals through the plant bed. Basic palynofacies analysis was also undertaken on each sample. Both dispersed sporomorph and plant megafossil assemblages display consistent changes in composition, diversity (richness), and abundance through time. However, the dispersed sporomorph and plant megafossil records provide conflicting evidence for the nature of parent vegetation. Specifically, conifers and ferns are underrepresented in plant megafossil assemblages, bryophytes and lycopsids are represented only in sporomorph assemblages, and sphenophytes, pteridosperms, Caytoniales, Cycadales, Ginkgoales and Bennettitales are comparatively underrepresented in sporomorph assemblages. Combined multivariate analysis (correspondence analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling) of sporomorph occurrence/abundance data demonstrates that temporal variation in sporomorph assemblages is the result of depositional change through the plant bed. The reproductive strategies of parent plants are considered to be a principal factor in shaping many of the major abundance and diversity irregularities between dispersed sporomorph and plant megafossil data sets that seemingly reflects different parent vegetation. Preferential occurrence/preservation of sporomorphs and equivalent parent plants is a consequence of a complex array of biological, ecological, geographical, taphonomic, and depositional factors that act inconsistently between and within fossil assemblages, which results in notable discrepancies between data sets.

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Lenton, Timothy M., Tais W. Dahl, Stuart J. Daines, Benjamin J. W. Mills, Kazumi Ozaki, Matthew R. Saltzman, and Philipp Porada. "Earliest land plants created modern levels of atmospheric oxygen." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 35 (August 15, 2016): 9704–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604787113.

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The progressive oxygenation of the Earth’s atmosphere was pivotal to the evolution of life, but the puzzle of when and how atmospheric oxygen (O2) first approached modern levels (∼21%) remains unresolved. Redox proxy data indicate the deep oceans were oxygenated during 435–392 Ma, and the appearance of fossil charcoal indicates O2 >15–17% by 420–400 Ma. However, existing models have failed to predict oxygenation at this time. Here we show that the earliest plants, which colonized the land surface from ∼470 Ma onward, were responsible for this mid-Paleozoic oxygenation event, through greatly increasing global organic carbon burial—the net long-term source of O2. We use a trait-based ecophysiological model to predict that cryptogamic vegetation cover could have achieved ∼30% of today’s global terrestrial net primary productivity by ∼445 Ma. Data from modern bryophytes suggests this plentiful early plant material had a much higher molar C:P ratio (∼2,000) than marine biomass (∼100), such that a given weathering flux of phosphorus could support more organic carbon burial. Furthermore, recent experiments suggest that early plants selectively increased the flux of phosphorus (relative to alkalinity) weathered from rocks. Combining these effects in a model of long-term biogeochemical cycling, we reproduce a sustained +2‰ increase in the carbonate carbon isotope (δ13C) record by ∼445 Ma, and predict a corresponding rise in O2 to present levels by 420–400 Ma, consistent with geochemical data. This oxygen rise represents a permanent shift in regulatory regime to one where fire-mediated negative feedbacks stabilize high O2 levels.

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Zijlstra, Gea, and Paul C. Silva. "(2017) Proposal to conserve the name Vesicularia (Müll. Hal.) Müll. Hal. (Bryophyta: Hypnaceae ) against Vesicularia P. Micheli ex Targ. Tozz. (Algae incertae sedis ), with a new name for Vesicularia Vologdin (fossil Cyanophyceae )." TAXON 60, no. 3 (June 2011): 905–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tax.603028.

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Mitchell, D. "Review of Australian Tropical Rain Forest Trees. An Interactive Indetification System, by Hyland, BPM and Whiffen; The Rainforest Edge, by Hemming, J.; Atlas of the Bryophytes of Britain and Ireland. Volume 3. Mosses (Diplolepideae), by Hill, M. O., Preston, C. D. and Smith, A. J.; Phytochemistry and Agriculture, by Beck, van T. A. and Breteler, H.; Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, by Gleason, H. A. and Cronquist, A.; Flora of Flintshire, by Wynne, G. and Ultrastructure of Fossil Spores and Pollen, by Kurmann, M. H. and Doyle, J. A." Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 116, no. 3 (November 1994): 243–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/bojl.1994.1063.

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STECH, MICHAEL, PAULO E. A. S. CÂMARA, RAFAEL MEDINA, and JESÚS MUÑOZ. "Advances and challenges in bryophyte biology after 50 years of International Association of Bryologists." Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution 43, no. 1 (June 30, 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/bde.43.1.4.

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Research on bryophyte biology has made exciting advances during the last 10 to 15 years since the publications of Goffinet & Shaw (2008) and Frey & Stech (2009) that summarized the knowledge of the field. New fossils provided insights into past bryophyte diversity and integrative taxonomic approaches combine the ever increasing molecular data with thorough assessments of morphology and anatomy. Patterns of speciation, diversity at population level and geographic distributions are becoming better understood, and the interactions of bryophytes with their biotic and abiotic environment are increasingly being revealed. Nevertheless, important knowledge gaps remain, and anthropogenic threats such as habitat alterations and global climate change on bryophyte diversity increase the urgency of further research.

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"Lower Palaeozoic sporomorphs: their stratigraphical distribution and possible affinities." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences 309, no. 1138 (April 2, 1985): 201–5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1985.0079.

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Richardson & Ioannides (1973) speculated on possible bryophytic affinities of some Silurian dispersed spores. Later, at the International Palynological Congress in Cambridge (1980) I discussed the close morphological similarities of some Silurian and early Devonian spores to those from mosses and liverworts. In particular the dispersed miospore genera Streelispora and Aneurospora are similar to the spores of the extant liverwort Anthoceras and spores of some species of the extant moss genus Encalypta to fossil spores of Emphanisporites . If such similarities are indicative of affinity then many of the Silurian spores may have belonged to early bryophytic ancestors. As mosses and liverworts are not usually preserved as fossils, such an explanation would help to explain the major discrepancy between the number of dispersed Silurian and Lower Devonian miospore species and the few species of land plants known.

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Fletcher, Benjamin J., David J. Beerling, Stuart J. Brentnall, and Dana L. Royer. "Fossil bryophytes as recorders of ancient CO2levels: Experimental evidence and a Cretaceous case study." Global Biogeochemical Cycles 19, no. 3 (August 19, 2005). http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005gb002495.

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Li, Ruiyun, Xiaoqiang Li, Hongshan Wang, and Bainian Sun. "Ricciopsis sandaolingensis sp. nov., a new fossil bryophyte from the Middle Jurassic Xishanyao Formation in the Turpan-Hami Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China." Palaeontologia Electronica 22, no. 2 (2019). http://dx.doi.org/10.26879/917.

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Journal articles on the topic 'Bryophytes fossiles'

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