New data about Matonia braunii (Göppert) Harris from the Early Jurassic of Poland and its ecology

Maria Barbacka,Grzegorz Pieńkowski,Grzegorz Pacyna,Jadwiga Ziaja

doi:10.7306/gq.1322

Maria Barbacka, Grzegorz Pieńkowski + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.7306/gq.1322

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Abstract

Fern remains of matoniacean affinity were found in the Lower Hettangian strata of lacustrine/backswamp origin from the Nieklan PGI 1 borehole (central Poland, Holy Cross Mts.). The preserved fragments have been identified as Matonia braunii (Goppert, 1841) Harris, 1980. The remains suggest a rather small, low-growth plant with palmately compound fronds. The sori contain at least 5 sporangia preserved with well-developed annuli. The spores are triangular, trilete and kyrtomate, with a thin and smooth surface corresponding with dispersed Dictyophyllidites mortoni (de Jersey, 1959) Playford et Dettmann, 1965. Based on the gross morphology of sterile and fertile pinnae, suggestions made by Harris (1980) on the synonymy of Phlebopteris braunii (Goppert, 1841) Hirmer et Horhammer, 1936 with P. muensteri Schenk, 1867 (Hirmer and Horhammer, 1936) and their referral to Matonia braunii is proved and confirmed in this paper. The fern occurs in strata indicating a warm and humid climate and approaching transgression resulting in a high water table and the enhanced accumulation of organic matter.

Highlights

During the Mesozoic, diversified ferns constituted a promi nent element in the land vegetation of the time (Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2002; Wang, 2002)
In the Early Jurassic, ferns were widespread in many Eu ropean localities (Barbacka et al, 2014b) especially in fluvial-deltaic coal-generating floras of the kind encountered in Sweden, Hun
About ten fossil genera of this family have been described from the Mesozoic based on their foiiage, and a similar number based on petrified rhizomes and petioles (Hirmer and Horhammer, 1936; Skog, 1988; Tidwell and Skog, 1992; Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 1993; Tidwell and Ash, 1994)

Summary

Introduction

During the Mesozoic, diversified ferns constituted a promi nent element in the land vegetation of the time (Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2002; Wang, 2002) Families such as Matoniaceae, Dipteridaceae, Schizaeaceae, Gleicheniaceae, Hymenophyllaceae, Osmundaceae, Marattiaceae and Cyatheaceae flourished in Triassic and Jurassic times (Cleal, 1993). This is regarded as one of the diagnostic fea tures of the family (Brown in Wallich, 1830; Presl, 1848; Kramer, 1990)

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