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A detailed and extensive study of a new species, Brachyphyllum garciarum sp. nov., was carried out through the analysis of the gross morphology and the cuticle fine details, structure and ultrastructure characters of its leaves using light microscope and scanning and transmission electron microscope. The fossils consist of compressions of incomplete twigs with well-preserved cuticle, collected from pelitic levels of the Springhill Formation (lower Hauterivian/lower Barremian) at the Río Correntoso locality in the Santa Cruz province, Argentina. The twigs have adpressed scale-like leaves spirally disposed. Leaves have a rhomboidal to pyramidal shape, a width and length always in a 1:1 ratio, margin entire and apex mostly rounded. Leaves are amphistomatic with stomatal apparatuses occurring in groups of narrow-wedge shape along the leaf axis. Stomatal apparatuses are close to each other with subsidiary cells in contact; the guard cells are sunken, with marked polar extensions and thickened mouth. Remnants of hypodermis cells are present in both foliar epidermis. Ultrastructurally, four types of cuticles were observed and evaluated statistically in detail: the ordinary epidermal cell upper and lower cuticles and the subsidiary cell cuticle are compounded of A2 granular layer and a spongy B1 layer somewhat mixed with cell wall remnants, while the guard cell cuticle presents only a spongy B1 layer. An Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy study was also made revealing the presence of 10 characteristic ratios with taxonomic importance, at least at the species level: N/Na, S/Cl, S/Na, Cl/K, K/Na as the most important; followed by N/Ca, S/K, Cl/Ca, Cl/Na; and S/Ca being the least reliable. The combination of morphological and cuticle ultrastructure features of Brachyphyllum garciarum sp. nov. are unique and clearly different from other contemporary species of the genus from Western Gondwana. Moreover, the ultrastructure of the foliar cuticle suggests a highly probable affinity with the Araucariaceae Family, more precisely with the genus Araucaria. Of the four recognized sections among the living species of Araucaria, the leaf morphology of B. garciarum sp. nov. is mostly similar with some species of the Eutacta section.

Anatomically preserved conifer-like leaves from the Middle Jurassic La Matilde Formation at the Barda Blanca locality in the Gran Bajo de San Julián area, southern Patagonia are described here. Leaves are assigned to conifers based on the following foliar features: thick-walled epidermal cells, a sclerenchymatic hypodermis, resin canals and transfusion tracheids associated with the vascular bundle. General mesophyll anatomy and inferred foliar morphology suggest a similarity to large, broad, linearlanceolate, multi-veined conifer-like leaves. The general foliar habit indicates an affinity with the large, multi-veined leaves of the Araucariaceae; especially with those exhibited by the species of the Araucaria sections, Araucaria and Bunya. Anatomically, the permineralized leaves exhibit xeromorphic foliar features, including thick-walled epidermal cells, an isobilateral mesophyll with well-developed palisade cells and mechanical tissue. the general leaf anatomy shown by the Patagonian specimens along with sedimentological data may suggest that during the deposition of the La Matilde Formation at the Barda Blanca locality, the parent plant was well adapted to the environmental conditions, which probably consisted of a high light intensity with an adequate quantity of water in the soil, which increased the maximum leaf conductance of CO 2 .

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The present study is a holistic approach to the relationship between volcaniclastic host rock characteristics and the fossilization processes of short leafy coniferous branches of Squamastrobus tigrensis, preserved as fossilized-cuticles (Lower Cretaceous, Baqueró Group, Patagonia, Argentina). The question of diagenetic influences of Aptian volcaniclastic sedimentation on preservation chemistry and taphonomic processes is addressed. Whereas infrared spectroscopy provided chemical information on the leaves, vitrinite reflectance and complementary thermal indicators provided data on the thermal maturity of the dispersed organic matter in the host rock. Three sample types were analyzed: fossilized-cuticle, macerated fossilized-cuticle (by infrared spectroscopy), and associated organic host rock matter (by light microscopy). Results clearly show chemical variability between, and within the fossilized-cuticle and cuticle, as well as a similarity to type I/II kerogen, i.e., high contents of both aliphatic groups and oxygencontaining compounds. Combined with the lower maturity of the host rock, the importance of the depositional environment during burial and taphonomic conditions that affected the fossilization of S. tigrensis are summarized in a general fossilization model.

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