Barthelia

Barthelia
Temporal occurrence
Late Pennsylvania
Locations
Hamilton Quarry ( Kansas )
Systematics
Department : Vascular plants (tracheophyta) Subdivision : Seed plants (Spermatophytina) Class : Coniferopsida Order : Voltcial Family : Bartheliaceae Genre : Barthelia
Scientific name of the  family
Bartheliaceae
Rothwell & Mapes
Scientific name of the  genus
Barthelia
Rothwell & Mapes

Barthelia is an extinct conifer genus ( Coniferopsida ) from the order of the Voltziales with only one species and the only representative of the family Bartheliaceae .

features

The branches of the plants are irregularly branched. The leaves are up to five centimeters long. The epidermal cells of the leaves are papillary , there are trichomes near the base of the leaf . The stomata are arranged in bands, each complex consists of four to seven accompanying cells with typically thick cell walls.

The pollen-forming cones are small, up to five millimeters long. The microsporophylls are arranged in a spiral, some have a two-part tip. The number of pollen sacs per sporophyll is not known. The pollen grains are monosaccat (have an air sac), on the inside of the saccus there are reticulated outgrowths (the pollen is eusaccat). The pollen corresponds to the type Potonieisporites .

The seed-forming cones are composed and stand in fertile zones along the shoot axis. Each cone is radially symmetrical and has several sterile scales with orthotropic ovules on narrow sporophylls.

Barthelia furcata , the only species, shares some characteristics with Emporia lockardii , which occurs at the same site, but has longer two-part leaves and whose stomata ligaments are limited to the underside of the leaf.

designation

The genus Barthelia is named after Manfred Barthel at the Institute for Paleontology in the Natural History Museum Berlin , who, according to the first description, played a major role in understanding fossil conifer species. The epithet furcata of the only known species is derived from the branched leaves, twigs and microsporophylls that are characteristic of this species.

swell

• Thomas N. Taylor, Edith L. Taylor, Michael Krings: Paleobotany. The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants . Second Edition, Academic Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-12-373972-8 . P. 820
• Gar W. Rothwell, Gene Mapes: Barthelia furcata gen. Et sp. nov., with a review of paleozoic coniferophytes and a discussion of coniferophyte systematics . International Journal of Plant Science, 2001, Volume 162, pp. 637-667, doi : 10.1086 / 320129 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gar W. Rothwell, Gene Mapes: Barthelia furcata gen. Et sp. nov., with a review of paleozoic coniferophytes and a discussion of coniferophyte systematics . International Journal of Plant Science, 2001, Volume 162, pp. 637-667, doi : 10.1086 / 320129