Arlenea delicata gen. et sp. nov., a new ephedroid plant from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil

doi:10.1016/j.pld.2023.06.008

Plant Diversity ›› 2024, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (03): 362-371.DOI: 10.1016/j.pld.2023.06.008

Arlenea delicata gen. et sp. nov., a new ephedroid plant from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil

Alita Maria Neves Ribeiro^a,c, Yong Yang^b, Antônio Álamo Feitosa Saraiva^a,c, Renan Alfredo Machado Bantim^a,c,f, João Tavares Calixto Junior^c,d, Flaviana Jorge de Lima^a,e,f

a. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Diversidade Biológica e Recursos Naturais, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Rua Carolino Sucupira, Pimenta, 63105-160, Crato, Ceará, Brazil;
b. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, 159 Longpan Road, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China;
c. Laboratório de Paleontologia, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Rua Carolino Sucupira, Pimenta, 63105-160, Crato, Ceará, Brazil;
d. Laboratório de Estudos da Flora Regional, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Rua Carolino Sucupira, Pimenta, 63105-160, Crato, Ceará, Brazil;
e. Gondwanan Plants Lab, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Centro Acadêmico de Vitória, Rua Do Alto Reservatório S/n, Bela Vista, 55608-680, Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco, Brazil;
f. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências (PPGEOC), Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Rua Av. da Arquitetura, S/nº CEP-50740-550, Cidade Universitária, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Received:2022-12-14 Revised:2023-06-12 Published:2024-05-20
Contact: Flaviana Jorge de Lima,E-mail:flaviana.jorge@ufpe.br
Supported by:
We would like to thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico CNPq Processo nº 406902/2022-4 (INCT PALEOVERT), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-CAPES for the financial support grant to A.M.N. Ribeiro (88887520216/2020-00) and the Fundação Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico-FUNCAP for the financial support grant to R.A.M. Bantim (#BMD-0124-00302.01.01/19), and A.A.F. Saraiva (#BP3- 013900202.01.00/18). The authors thank I.L. Aquino for the fossil preparation and E.G. Santana, T.A. Batista and E.B. Santos Filho for suggestions on the manuscript. We sincerely thank to the Museu de Paleontologia Plácido Cidade Nuvens and J.L Silva for providing the fossil specimens analyzed here. We are very grateful to E.K. Piovesan for providing the space and equipment of the Laboratório de Micropaleontologia Aplicada da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (LMA-UFPE) and R.M. Melo for the help with samples analyzed on the Scanning Electronic Microscope. Also, the authors thank the associate Editor-in-Chief Jianwen Zhang, and the two anonymous reviewers for suggestions that improved this manuscript. The help of the language editor Raymond Porter was also essential for the better structuring of this manuscript.

Abstract

Abstract: Ephedroid macrofossils have been widely documented in Cretaceous deposits, including numerous from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of NE China. However, few ephedroid macrofossils have been reported from South America. Herein, we describe a new plant of the family Ephedraceae, Arlenea delicata gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of the Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil, based on the vegetative and reproductive structures. It has the typical morphological characteristics of ephedroid plants, including fertile reproductive branches, opposite phyllotaxy, terminal female cones, a sympodial branching system, longitudinally striated internodes, and swollen nodes. Our new finding is unusual in having inner chlamydosperms subtended by two pairs of bracts, reproductive units connected to branches through swollen receptacles and a smooth seed surface. This new ephedroid taxon from the Crato Formation increases our understanding of plant diversity of this group during the Early Cretaceous. Furthermore, the general morphology (fleshy bracts and enlarged receptacles) of this new fossil discovery indicates that seeds of this plant may have been dispersed by animals such as pterosaurs (mainly the Tapejaridae) and birds (Enantiornithes and Ornituromorpha). If true, this would explain the cosmopolitan distribution of Ephedraceae in the Lower Cretaceous.

Key words: Early Cretaceous, Gnetophytes, Arlenea delicata, Ephedrales, Crato Formation

Alita Maria Neves Ribeiro, Yong Yang, Antônio Álamo Feitosa Saraiva, Renan Alfredo Machado Bantim, João Tavares Calixto Junior, Flaviana Jorge de Lima. Arlenea delicata gen. et sp. nov., a new ephedroid plant from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil[J]. Plant Diversity, 2024, 46(03): 362-371.

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Arlenea delicata gen. et sp. nov., a new ephedroid plant from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil

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