First records of the angiosperm genus Sapindopsis Fontaine (Platanaceae) in western Eurasia from middle to latest Albian deposits of Spain

Abstract

The genus Sapindopsis was originally described from Albian deposits of the Potomac Group in the United States, and leaves of this genus have been found in Albian to Cenomanian deposits from western North America, the Middle East and Asia, but until now they were unknown in Europe. The pinnatifid and compound leaves of Sapindopsis reported here from the middle to uppermost Albian Escucha and Utrillas formations in northeastern Spain constitute the first records of this genus in western Eurasia. Two types of Sapindopsis have been found in Spain. The older type, here described as Sapindopsis turolensis sp. nov., has pinnatifid leaves, up to four pairs of opposite lobes, a trilobed apex with palinactinodromous venation and decurrent lobe bases that continue as a wide wing of foliar tissue on the rachis. These leaves are most similar to Sapindopsis magnifolia from the middle Albian of the Potomac Group, but they differ in characters of the lobes and venation. The younger type, Sapindopsis type A, is more similar to pinnately compound Sapindopsis leaves from late Albian localities in the Potomac Group but differs in having lobes rather than true leaflets, with a narrow wing of laminar tissue decurrent onto the rachis, and randomly oriented tertiary veins. All these features are shared with leaves from Quantico, Virginia. The sedimentological setting, palaeoenvironmental conditions and plant assemblages containing Sapindopsis in eastern North America and western Laurasia were generally similar during the middle and late Albian, differing mainly in the presence of tidal influence at the Spanish localities.