Some Conifers from The Early Cretaceous (Late Aptian – Early Albian) of Catefica, Lusitanian Basin, Western Portugal

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Several mesofossil floras discovered in the Early Cretaceous rocks from the Lusitanian Basin of western Portugal comprise numerous well-preserved conifer remains. Here we report the occurrence of four conifer types in the mesofossil flora from the Catefi ca locality, about 4 km south of Torres Vedras in the Estremadura region on the western Portuguese Basin. The specimens were recovered from rocks belonging to the Almargem Formation, interpreted to be of late Aptian - early Albian age. It includes three Cheirolepidiaceae genera Frenelopsis SCHENK, Pseudofrenelopsis NATH. and Watsoniocladus V.SRINIV., and one conifer twig of Pagiophyllum-type. These conifers, which co-occurred in the same depositional bed with a well-diversified early angiosperm assemblage including flowers, seeds, fruits and dispersed stamens with pollen in situ, provide new insights into Early Cretaceous palaeoecology.</jats:p>

Fossil mosses from the Early Cretaceous Catefica mesofossil flora, Portugal – a window into the Mesozoic history of Bryophytes

“…The precise position of the Catefica plant-bearing horizons in the Almargem Formation is uncertain, but they are either in the upper part of the Lower Almargem Formation or in the basal part of the Upper Almargem Formation, indicating a late Aptian-early Albian, or perhaps slightly older, age (Rey 1992, Dinis et al 2008. For illustrations of the Catefica locality, further discussion of the age of the Catefica mesofossil flora, and the methods used to extract the mesofossils, see Friis et al 2011Friis et al , 2018 Other plant fossils from the Catefica mesofossil flora have been described by Friis et al 2011, 2019a, 2022, Mendes et al 2017, 2018a, and Tekleva et al 2021.…”