Permian conifers of Western Angaraland

A new species of Cladaitina Maheshwari & Meyen, 1975 (cordaitalean pollen) from Uppermost Permian deposits of the Famatina Range, Central Western Argentina

“…Following Meyen (1997) and Gomankov (2000) we suppose that the aperture of these pollen grains (when present) is on the proximal side of the intexine (Zavialova & Gomankov, 2009). The number of specimens studied in the La Veteada Formation allows us to consider that the presence of the scar mark is eventually observed or preserved just in some intexnal bodies and it could be related as a consequence of the preservational state and/or may be, due to the maturation stages of the grains.…”

Early Permian conifer remains from Central Mexico and reevaluation of Paleozoic conifer morphotaxa

“…This approach prevents us from using ambiguous morphotaxa names that Walchian, Lebachioid, Voltzian, Gondwanan and Angaran Voltiziales are clades names derived from phylogenetic analyses (Rothwell et al, 2005). Generic names from: Seward and Sahni, (1920), Florin (1927Florin ( , 1938, Schweitzer (1963Schweitzer ( , 1996, Pant (1982), Clement-Westerhof (1984, Winston (1984), Visscher et al (1986), Archangelsky and Cuneo (1987), Meyen (1987Meyen ( , 1997, Clement-Westerhof (1991, 1996), Mapes and Rothwell (1991), Freytet et al (1996) Kerp et al (1996), Hernandez-Castillo et al (2001;2009a-c), Rothwell and Mapes (2001), Rothwell andMapes (2001, 2003), Hernandez-Castillo (2005) would lead to more confusing walchian conifer species concepts.…”

“…These fossils allow us to describe a new conifer species from the early Permian of Mexico. The material is characterized by isolated and fragmentary lateral branches with simple leaves that resemble many other walchian conifers around the world (Florin, 1938-45;Rothwell, 1982;Clement-Westerhof, 1987;Meyen, 1997;Rothwell et al, 1997;Kerp and Clement-Westerhof, 1991). Traditionally, fragmentary conifer remains were described as species belonging to form-genera (Florin, 1938-45;Mapes and Rothwell, 1991;Visscher et al, 1986), now known as morphotaxa (Greuter in McNeill et al, 2006).…”

A new genus of male cones of voltzialean affinity, Uralostrobus voltzioides nov. gen., nov. sp., from the Lower Permian of the Urals (Russia)

“…Conifers of the family Voltziaceae undoubtedly appeared already in the Permian period, but their oldest unequivocal remains were previously found only in Middle Permian (Meyen, 1987(Meyen, , 1997 and Upper Permian (Weigelt, 1930;Stoneley, 1958;Schweitzer, 1960Schweitzer, , 1963Schweitzer, , 1968 deposits. The real "heyday" of Voltziaceae, as well as some other groups of gymnosperms, was the Triassic period (Anderson and Anderson, 2003), when these conifers played a remarkable role in the recovering of terrestrial vegetation after the Permian/Triassic extinction crisis (Gall et al, 1998;Looy et al, 1999).…”

“…Coniferophytes as a group of higher plants were widespread in the Permian period, especially in the Northern hemisphere, and after that they began to be intensively and rapidly diversified, which resulted in the appearance of several families, typical of the Triassic but having their evolutionary roots deep in the Permian (Clement-Westerhof, 1974;Miller, 1982;Meyen, 1987Meyen, , 1997Kerp et al, 1990;Mapes and Rothwell, 1991;Looy et al, 1999;Rothwell et al, 2005, Hernandez-Castillo et al, 2009. Traditionally, in palaeobotanical studies of Palaeozoic conifers the main attention is given to their female reproductive organs.…”