Pterophyllum sp.

Pott, Christian, 2014, The Upper Triassic flora of Svalbard, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59 (3), pp. 709-740 : 728

Pterophyllum sp. cf. Pterophyllum firmifolium Ye ex Wu, Ye, and Li, 1980

Fig. 8F–I.

1926 Pterophyllum ; Høeg 1926: 32, pl. 9: b2.

1972 Pterophyllum jaegeri Brongniart pro parte; Vasilevskaya 1972: 48, pl. 13: 2.

1972 Pterophyllum aff. jaegeri Brongniart ; Vasilevskaya 1972: 49, pls. 13: 1; 14: 3a.

Material.— Spitsbergen: Teistberget ( VSEGEI 10979-03, 10979-59, 10979-66). Probably Edgeøya: Kapp Lee ( NRM S080203). Hopen: Nørdstefjellet ( NRM S080273). Carnian Upper Triassic).

Description.— The present material consists of three poorly preserved specimens that were recovered exclusively from Teistberget. The largest preserved leaf portion is 345 mm long and c. 60 mm wide (Fig. 8I). The rachis is prominent and up to 4 mm wide (Fig. 8F). The laterally and perpendicularly inserted leaflets are 2.8–3.8 mm wide and up to 23 mm long

Fig. 8G, H), parallel-sided and bluntly rounded to truncate apically. They are densely spaced and touch each other (Fig. 8H, I). Leaflets increase in length in the proximal two thirds of the leaf and then decrease in length towards the apex. Apices and venation details are not preserved.

Remarks.— The specimens are different from those found elsewhere on Svalbard and have only been found at Teistberget. They are not assignable to either Pterophyllum filicoides or P. brevipenne . Leaflet width and length in combination with gross lamina shape are more similar to P. firmifolium , which has been described from Late Triassic (?Carnian) Hsiangchi Coal Series in Western Hubei, China ( Wu et al. 1980; Moisan et al. 2011). Although the leaves from Svalbard exceed those from China in length, the width and length of the leaflets and the gross lamina shape match very well; the acute angles in the latter might be a taphonomic artifact. One other species, i.e., Pterophyllum ptilum Harris, 1932 , from Rhaetian deposits of Scania and Greenland (cf. Pott and McLoughlin 2009) is similar but even smaller, and has leaflets arranged at acute angles. However, since the material is scarce in Svalbard and the epidermal anatomy remains unknown, I assign the specimens with reservation to P. firmifolium until additional material becomes available. One Pteropyhllum specimen found at Nørdstefjellet on Hopen (Fig. 8F) and one from Kapp Lee on Edgeøya may also belong in this species. In those specimens, the leaflets are separated by 2-mm-wide gaps, but have venation that is, nevertheless, strikingly similar to P. firmifolium , and similar gaps also occur in some of the specimens from China ( Wu et al. 1980) and Madygen ( Moisan et al. 2011).

Geographic and stratigraphic range.— Europe, Asia; Carnian–Norian.