Fossil Fokienia (Cupressaceae) from the Paleocene of Alberta, Canada

Abstract

Fossil foliage bearing seed cones of Fokienia ravenscragensis McIver & Basinger (Cupressaceae) from the early Paleocene of Alberta, Canada, provides information about the species not available previously. This cedar, first described from the Paleocene Ravenscrag Formation, Saskatchewan, bears seed cones remarkably similar to extant Fokienia. Fossils from Alberta indicate that the fertile axis bore up to three pairs of seed cones in opposite pairs at successive nodes. Pollen cones and pollen, previously unknown, are typical for the Cupressaceae. Pollen cones bear decussate microsporophylls with deltoid distal lamina and globose abaxial sporangia; pollen is ellipsoidal to circular in outline, the wall psilate with irregularly spaced small gemmae. Cupressaceous seeds associated with seed and pollen cones may belong to the taxon, but they are not identical to those of extant Fokienia, differing mainly in wing morphology. The architecture of the cone-bearing axis of this fossil species is unlike any extant member of the Cupressaceae. Fossil data now available from this and other taxa allow speculations on the ancestry of Fokienia and other related genera. Key words: Fokienia, Cupressaceae, evolution, Tertiary, Paleocene, fossil, seed cones, pollen cones, pollen.