Abstract
A new pinaceous species is described from the Early Cretaceous (Albian) McMurray Formation of Alberta. The cone is partially lignitic with permineralized ovules, 13 cm long × 4 cm wide, and occurs in a siliceous sandstone matrix. Thin sections were made after embedding with bioplastic and infiltration of cut faces with epoxy. Externally the helically arranged flattened cone scales resemble those of extant Picea. Scales bear two inverted, winged ovules containing shrunken nucellar and megagametophyte tissue. The cone axis is slender and contains small wedges of secondary xylem lacking resin canals. Vascularization of the cone–scale complex is similar to the non-Pinus species of the Pinaceae with bract and scale traces separate at their origins. One large abaxial resin canal, 1 mm in diameter, accompanies the traces out into the scale for 1 cm before branching. Two large bundles of sclerenchyma accompany the scale vascular tissue and may have served to open the cone at maturity. The bract, small and triangular in outline, has a terete trace and two lateral resin canals. Cone and seed structure are closely comparable to fossil pinaceous genera Pseudoaraucaria and Pityostrobus and the non-Pinus genera of the extant Pinaceae.
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