Biology:Dicroidium odontopteroides

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Short description: Species of ancient plant

Dicroidium odontopteroides
Temporal range: Triassic
Dicroidium odontopteroides.jpg
Dicroidium odontopteroides fossil leaf, Late Triassic Molteno Formation near Birds River South Africa.
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Corystospermales
Family: Corystospermaceae
Genus: Dicroidium
Species:
D. odontopteroides
Binomial name
Dicroidium odontopteroides
(Morris) Gothan

Dicroidium odontopteroides was a common and widespread species of Dicroidium known from South Africa , Australia , New Zealand, South America and Antarctica. The species was first discovered in Triassic sediments of Tasmania and described by the palaeontologist John Morris in 1845.[1]

Description

The leaves of Dicroidium odontopteroides differ from other species of Dicroidium in being unipinnate and having short rounded pinnae.

Whole plant reconstructions

Dicroidium odontopteroides may have been produced by the same plant as Umkomasia macleanii (ovulate structures) and Pteruchus africanus (pollen organs), based on cuticular similarities between these leaves and reproductive structures at the Umkomaas locality of South Africa.[2]

References

  1. Strzelecki, P.E. (1845). Physical descriptions of New South Wales and van Diemens Land. Brown, Green and Longmans, London. pp. 422 pp. 
  2. Thomas, H.H. (1933). "On some pteridospermous plants from the Mesozoic rocks of South Africa". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 222 (483–493): 193–265. doi:10.1098/rstb.1932.0016. 

Wikidata ☰ Q25095289 entry