Stutzeliastrobus F.HERRERA, SHI, P.KNOPF, B.L.ANDREW, ICHINN., M.TAKAHASHI et HEREND., 2017

Kvaček, Jiří, Heřmanová, Zuzana, Bruthansová, Jana, Karch, Jakub, Žemlička, Jan & Dudák, Jan, 2018, Stutzeliastrobus Bohemicus Comb. Nov. - Basal Cupressaceae Conifer From The Cenomanian Of The Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, Central Europe, Fossil Imprint 74 (1 - 2), pp. 179-188 : 180

Stutzeliastrobus F.HERRERA, SHI, P.KNOPF, B.L.ANDREW, ICHINN., M.TAKAHASHI et HEREND., 2017

T y p e: Stutzeliastrobus foliatus F. HERRERA et al., 2017 ,

p. 27, figs 3–10.

D i s c u s s i o n. The genus Stutzeliastrobus described from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia ( Herrera et al. 2017) is based on well-preserved ovuliferous cones borne on Cyparissidium type twigs. Ovuliferous cones of Stutzeliastrobus are characterised by having thin, bilaterally symmetrical, bract-scale complexes bearing two to four winged seeds per cone scale complex. Its leaves are amphistomatic with the abaxial side showing stomata only in basal part. These characters are very similar to the studied material described by Bayer under the genus Cyparissidium ( Bayer 1914, 1920).

The most basal extant taxa of Cupressaceae , Cunninghamia and Taiwania , and Athrotaxis selaginoides ( Gadek et al. 2000, Farjon and Ortiz-Garcia 2003, Farjon 2005, Schulz and Stützel 2007) share many similarities with Stutzeliastrobus . All have helically arranged needle-like leaves and terminal ovuliferous cones with a large number of helically arranged bract-scale complexes (where bract has dominant position) bearing seeds that are inverted at maturity ( Farjon 2005, Schulz and Stützel 2007). Stutzeliastrobus differs from Cunninghamia in having a variable number (2– 4) seeds per bract-scale complex, winged seeds and imbricate leaves. It differs from Taiwania in having more than two seeds per cone scale. Taiwania is similar to Stutzeliastrobus in having the ovuliferous scale having built predominantly by a bract (forming a bract-scale complex) and being very flat with an imbricate arrangement. Athrotaxis selaginoides differs from Stutzeliastrobus in having a thicker and more elaborate bract-scale complex with terminal ligule-like scale. These characters place Stutzeliastrobus close to the basal monogeneric subfamily Taiwanioideae ( Herrera et al. 2017) .