SCIADOPITOPHYLLUM CANADENSE GEN. ET SP. NOV.: A NEW CONIFER FROM WESTERN ALBERTA

A new Sciadopitys-like conifer is described on the basis of compression fossils of shoots and leaves found at the Smokey Tower locality in western Alberta. The specimens consist of long, strap-like leaves attached in apparent whorls and subtended by groups of scale leaves. Other scale leaves are borne in loose spirals on the shoots between whorls. These specimens represent the first record of Sciadopitys-like foliage from western North America. Comparisons are made with extant and extinct species of the genus Sciadopitys (Siebold and Zuccarini, 1841) and with the widely distributed fossil genus Sciadopitytes (Goeppert and Menge, 1883).