Pazliopsis E.M.Friis, P.R.Crane et K.R.Pedersen

Plant Fossil Names Registry Number: PFN000092

Act LSID: urn:lsid:plantfossilnames.org:act:92

Authors: E. M. Friis, P. R. Crane & K. R. Pedersen

Rank: genus

Reference: Friis, E. M., Crane, P. R. & Pedersen, K. R. (2018): Extinct taxa of exotestal seeds close to Austrobaileyales and Nymphaeales from the Early Cretaceous of Portugal. – Fossil Imprint 74(1–2): 135–158.

Page of description: 143

Type

Original diagnosis/description

Fruit thin-walled, one-seeded. Seeds small, anatropous, bitegmic and exotestal. Seeds bilaterally symmetrical with dorsiventral plane of symmetry. Seed surface with faint longitudinal ridges. Raphe indistinct externally. Hilum and micropyle separated by broad zone of testal sclerenchyma. Hilar scar large, elongate and prominent with expanded testal tissue beneath the hilar scar, lacking a hilar rim. Micropyle formed by the inner integument (tegmen) and marked on the seed surface by a transverse slit through the outer integument (testa) adjacent to the hilar scar. Testa formed from an outer layer (exotesta) of palisade-shaped sclerenchyma cells and an inner thin layer of thin-walled parenchyma cells (mesotesta/endotesta). Palisade cells of exotesta with evenly thickened anticlinal walls and a straight lumen. Anticlinal walls of palisade-shaped sclerenchyma strongly undulate toward the inside and toward the outside, resulting in stellate-undulate facets and a jigsaw puzzle-like pattern on the seed surface. Tegmen thin.

Etymology

From όψις (Greek: appearance, aspect) to indicate close similarity in morphological appearance to seeds of Pazlia.