Abstract
An anatomically preserved fossil fern rhizome with diverging stipe bases and root traces is described from the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian to Hauterivian) Apple Bay locality, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The specimen is assignable to Solenostelopteris Kershaw, a morphogenus with six previously described species. The Apple Bay fossil is 1.3-1.6 mm in diameter, with parenchymatous pith and cortex, and is described as S. skogiae sp. nov. The xylem of the solenostele is exarch and one to six cells thick. Successive stipes diverge from only one side of the rhizome, implying a dorsi-ventral symmetry and prostrate habit. No trichomes or scales are produced. Diarch root traces emerge from all sides of the rhizome, some associated with leaf trace divergence. The pith and cortex are made up of uniform, thin-walled cells. The Apple Bay rhizome is most similar to S. nipanica Vishnu-Mittre from the Lower Cretaceous Nipania Flora, India, but differs in size and in distinctive tissue zonation in the cortex. This new species is the youngest record of the genus Solenostelopteris in North America, and it emphasizes that both new specimens of fossils and more complete descriptions of living ferns are needed to help clarify our concepts of Mesozoic ferns.
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