2019/05/20 by Ledis Regalado, Alexander R. Schmidt, Patrick Müller +3 · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Fern and Epiphyte Biology #Plant Diversity and Evolution #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/jse.12514
openalex publication_date 2019/05/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract Divergence time estimates suggest that most clades constituting the fern family Pteridaceae (Polypodiales) were in existence by the Early Cretaceous. However, fossil evidence to corroborate this remains exceedingly rare. Burmese amber is an important source of new information on the radiation of derived fern lineages during the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. This study describes Heinrichsia cheilanthoides gen. et sp. nov., a fern with suggested affinities to Pteridaceae, based on fertile foliage portions preserved in Early Cretaceous (~100 Ma) amber from Myanmar. Heinrichsia cheilanthoides is characterized by a pinnate‐pinnatifid frond that bears apical, marginal sori protected by a pseudoindusium. Sporangia are of the polypod type and contain tetrahedral‐globose, trilete spores with a striate perine. This discovery provides a new calibration point to test and refine molecular clock‐based concepts of the evolutionary history of the Pteridaceae. Heinrichsia cheilanthoides further substantiates the suggestion that the Cretaceous forests of Myanmar were home to a rich fern flora.