Elatocladus sp. A

Pole, Mike, 2019, Middle-Late Jurassic plant assemblages of the Catlins coast, New Zealand, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 51) 23 (3), pp. 1-48 : 27

Elatocladus sp. A

Figure 17.1-4

Material. Little Beach-01: LX1049, LX1054, LX1056, LX1061, LX1129, LX1131, LX1132, LX1133, LX1149, LX1150, LX1154, LX1157, LX1159.

Description. Detached shoots, up to at least 95 mm long, c. 1 mm diameter, with acroscopically-curving, single-veined, bilaterally flattened leaves, 6–12 mm long, 0.7–1.3 mm wide, strongly decurrent basal margin, spaced c. 2–3 mm along stem.

Remarks. Distinct in having acroscopically-curving leaves that are interpreted as bilaterally flattened. The short length of these leaves, and the branching, makes them apparently distinct from Bellarinea richardsii . However, they both occur in the same locality, and future collecting should seek to clarify that they are not an extreme morphology of the same taxon. The bilateral flattening is similar to the Cretaceous cheirolepid conifer Otwayia (Pole, 2000; Tosolini et al., 2015), although the falcate leaves are different. Palynology has established the existence of Cheirolepidiaceae in the Murihiku Group Jurassic (Raine and Pole, 1988; de Jersey and Raine, 1990), but the corresponding foliage in New Zealand is as yet unknown (it could be represented by some Pagiophyllum , cf. Tosolini et al., 2015).

Figures

FIGURE 17. Elatocladus spp. 1. Elatocladus sp. A, LX1054, Little Bay-01; 2. Elatocladus sp. A, LX1061, Little Bay-01; 3. Elatocladus sp. A, LX1131, Little Bay-01; 4. Elatocladus sp. A, LX1159, Little Bay-01; 5. Elatocladus sp. B, LX2077, Blue Cod Bay. All scale bars equal 10 mm.