Gymnosperm trees from the Permian of Antarctica: An anatomically preserved trunk of Kaokoxylon sp. |
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Authors: | Anne-Laure Decombeix Edith L. Taylor Thomas N. Taylor |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7534, USA;2. CNRS, UMR AMAP : botanique et bio-informatique de l’architecture des plantes, CIRAD – TA A51/PS2, boulevard de la Lironde, 34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France |
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Abstract: | Anatomically preserved gymnosperm axes are relatively abundant in Permian localities of Antarctica, but their anatomy has rarely been studied in detail, which limits comparison with other Gondwanan morphotaxa. Here we describe a silicified trunk collected from the Upper Permian Buckley Formation at Coalsack Bluff, in the central Transantarctic Mountains. The trunk has a small heterogeneous pith approximately 4 mm in diameter containing conspicuous sclerotic nests, endarch primary xylem maturation, paired leaf traces, and secondary xylem of the Araucarioxylon type. Comparison with contemporaneous gymnosperm axes from Antarctica indicates that the Coalsack Bluff trunk represents a new Permian morphotaxon for the region. The anatomical characters of the pith and secondary xylem suggest an affinity with the genus Kaokoxylon Kräusel, previously reported from Permian and Triassic localities of Southern Africa, South America, India, and Australia. |
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