Cladophlebis sp.

Pott, Christian, 2014, The Upper Triassic flora of Svalbard, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59 (3), pp. 709-740 : 721

cf. Cladophlebis sp.

Fig. 4G.

Material.— Spitsbergen: Bertilryggen (NRM S080258); Carnian (Upper Triassic).

Description.— One specimen from Bertilryggen represents the basal part of a fern pinna/frond with nine pinnule pairs preserved that are oppositely positioned (Fig. 4G 1). Preservation is not very good and venation details are lacking. The preserved part is 85 mm long, the individual pinnules are 5–7 mm wide basally and the longest is 11 mm long. Pinnules are inserted laterally by their whole basal width on a 2–3 mm wide rachis (Fig. 4G 2).

Remarks.— Among the studied collections, only a single specimen was attributable to this taxon. Vasilevskaya (1972) did not mention or figure any comparable specimen. Specific assignment is uncertain due to the lack of venation details. The specimen closely resembles specimens assigned to Phlebopteris muensteri from the Rhaetian of Scania ( Pott and McLoughlin 2011). Phlebopteris muensteri is a typical matoniaceous fern of Late Triassic–Early Jurassic floras and is common in several European floras ( Schweitzer et al. 2009).