Cladophlebis patagonica Frenguelli, 1947 emend. Herbst, 1966

Pole, Mike, 2019, Middle-Late Jurassic plant assemblages of the Catlins coast, New Zealand, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 51) 23 (3), pp. 1-48 : 8-9

Cladophlebis patagonica Frenguelli, 1947 emend. Herbst, 1966

Figure 4

1864 Polypodium hochstetteri Unger , p. 5, figs. 1-2.

1886 Pecopteris obtusata Hector , fig. 30A (1).

1886 Pecopteris grandis Hector , fig. 30A (3).

1987 Cladophlebis indica (Oldham and Morris) Sahni and Rao; Raine, pl. 1, fig. 6.

1995 Cladophlebis australis (Morris) Seward ; McLoughlin and Drinnan, p. 258, fig. 2F, fig. 3A, C.

2002 Cladophlebis sp. cf. C. patagonica Herbst McLoughlin et al. p. 15, fig. 9 A-E, fig. 10A.

Material. Black Point : LX0654, LX0655, LX1183,

LX1184, LX1498, LX1499, Blue Cod Bay : LX0666,

LX0680, Boat Harbour: LX1069, LX2070, Curio

Bay: LX1074-1078, LX1080, LX1081, LX1083,

LX1085-1089, LX1104, LX1226, LX1235, HaldaneCurio Bay Road: LX1213, Little Beach-01: LX1258,

The Chasm: LX0660, Otara-21, Noted in the field,

Otara-34: LX0683, LX1195, 1196, 1198, Owaka: LX0671, Slope-02: LX0684, LX1134, LX1135, 1136, 1139, 1197.

Description. Fronds tripinnate, c. 1 m long. Pinnae length to around 120 mm, pinnules subopposite lanceolate, length 13–33 mm, width 3–9 mm, L:W ratio 3.2–4.8, margin entire, apex acute, pinnule base broadening apically ( Figure 4.1 ), margin decurrent on rachis apically and basally, margins of adjacent pinnules just touching on the rachis, or slightly out from it forming a wing ( Figure 4.6 ), lateral veins dichotomising once, typically about onethird the distance from midrib to the margin, rarely a second time ( Figure 4.5 ), midrib straight or slightly falcate, running smoothly to the apex, where its width becomes the same as the lateral veins.

Remarks. Despite the absence of fertile material, Cladophlebis patagonica most likely belongs in the Osmundaceae . In the Curio Bay – Slope Point region, permineralised stems attributed to Osmundaceae are common (Kidston and Gwynne-Vaughan, 1907–10; Miller, 1967; Tidwell, 1994) as are spores of the family in the palynological record of the area (Thorn, 2001) and the broader New Zealand Jurassic (Raine et al., 2011). Very similar (possibly conspecific, but typically placed in C. australis or in no species) sterile foliage in the Gondwana Jurassic is either regarded as Osmundaceae (e.g., Gould, 1974; McLoughlin and Drinnan, 1995) or kept as ‘family unknown’ (Gee, 1989; Rees and Cleal, 2004).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Cladophlebis patagonica pinnules. 1. LX1498, Black Point (Note the distinct apical broadening of the pinnule base); 2. LX1074, Curio Bay; 3. LX1197, Slope-02; 4. LX1069, The Boat Harbour; 5. LX1076, Curio Bay (Note that some of the veins dichotomise twice.); 6. LX2070, The Boat Harbour (Note the pronounced apical broadening of the pinnule base which continues to the adjacent pinnule as a ‘wing’. All scale bars equal 10 mm).