New Lower Cretaceous ferns (Polypodiopsida) from the Aptian Baqueró Group, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

The Aptian Baqueró Group contains one of the most well-known Lower Cretaceous fossil floras of Patagonia, consisting of a rich assemblage of impression/compressions leaves, twigs, cones, wood silicifications and carbonizations, mesofossils and isolated palynomorphs. This assemblage represents most m...

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Autores principales: Vera, Ezequiel Ignacio, Perez Loinaze, Valeria S., Passalia, Mauro Gabriel, Llorens, Magdalena
Formato: Artículo revista
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura 2025
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Acceso en línea:https://revistas.unne.edu.ar/index.php/fce/article/view/8826
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Sumario:The Aptian Baqueró Group contains one of the most well-known Lower Cretaceous fossil floras of Patagonia, consisting of a rich assemblage of impression/compressions leaves, twigs, cones, wood silicifications and carbonizations, mesofossils and isolated palynomorphs. This assemblage represents most major clades of plants, with ferns being the most diverse group, and the recovered angiosperms show some of the first steps in the evolution of the clade. The fossil flora of this unit has been the focus of continuous studies since 1960, and its abundance still allows for the discovery of paleontological novelties. In this contribution, three new fern taxa are reported from the lower unit of the Baqueró Group (i.e. Anfiteatro de Ticó Formation) based on impression/compressions of leaves. Paramatonia rafaherbstiana sp. nov. is a sterile fern morphologically comparable to Matonia and Phlebopteris, and represents the first putative Matoniaceae macrofossil from the unit. A second taxon, identified as Cyatheaceae indet., is a fertile fragmentary frond with pinnules bearing cup-shaped (cyatheoid) indusia. The third recognized taxon is referred to as Polypodiopsida indet., and is characterized by having small dentate pinnules bearing up to 10 sori on the abaxial side. These new taxa increase the specific fern diversity of the Baqueró Group.