Miranthus elegans E.M.Friis, P.R.Crane et K.R.Pedersen
Plant Fossil Names Registry Number: PFN002666
Act LSID: urn:lsid:plantfossilnames.org:act:2666
Authors: E. M. Friis, P. R. Crane & K. R. Pedersen
Rank: species
Genus: Miranthus E.M.Friis, P.R.Crane et K.R.Pedersen
Reference: Friis, E. M., Crane, P. R. & Pedersen, K. R. (2021): Early flowers of primuloid Ericales from the Late Cretaceous of Portugal and their ecological and phytogeographic implications. – Fossil Imprint 77(2): 214–230.
Page of description: 216
Illustrations or figures: text-figs 1–6
Name is type for
Types
Holotype S170155, Palaeobotanical Collections, Department of Palaeobiology, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
Figures: text-figs 1a, 4c, d, 5c, d
Note: Holotype from Mira sample 100.
Paratypes: S170106 (Mira sample 99), S101263, S101264, S101266–S101268, S153144–S153146, S154535–S154538, S170123, S170125, S266059 (Mira sample 100), S100732 (Mira sample 105), all housed in Palaeobotanical Collections, Department of Palaeobiology, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden.
Original diagnosis/description
Flowers pedicellate, structurally bisexual, actinomorphic, pentamerous and isomerous. No bracteoles present immediately under calyx. Sepals narrowly triangular, basally fused, persistent. Petals ovate, longer than sepals. Stamens opposite corolla lobes; staminodes alternating with the corolla lobes. Ovary semi-inferior, unilocular, of five carpels; single style long with a wide stylar canal that is five-angled in cross-section. Apical portion of ovary with a slightly raised nectariferous ring and stomata-like openings. Placentation free, central. Ovules numerous and densely spaced on the placenta, but not immersed. Ovules anatropous and bitegmic. Fruit a capsule. Seeds many, minute, angular, with reticulate surface.
Epidermis of pedicel and outer (abaxial) epidermis of calyx composed of cells that each have a central pointed papilla. Trichomes scattered and thin.
Etymology
From the elegant shape of the pedicellate flower.
Stratigraphy
Cretaceous, Upper Cretaceous
“Argilas de Vagos”, Campanian/Maastrichtian
Locality
Portugal
Mira (40° 25ʹ N, 08° 44ʹ 15ʺ W), about 25 km south of Aveiro, District of Coimbra
Plant fossil remain
macro- and meso-fossils-embryophytes except wood
Comments
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