Cascadiacarpa exilis sp. nov.: new fruits of Fagaceae from the Eocene of British Columbia

Botany ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (5) ◽  
pp. 377-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randal A. Mindell ◽  
Ruth A. Stockey ◽  
Graham Beard

More than 800 permineralized fagaceous fruits have been studied from the Eocene Appian Way locality of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. These cupulate nuts are the most common fruits preserved at the locality. They occur in calcareous concretions and were studied using the cellulose acetate peel technique. Cupules are borne on a spiny stalk and are broadly ovate in both longitudinal and transverse section. Cupules are evalvate and have both branching and simple spines. A single, ovoid, sclerotic nut is enclosed entirely by the cupule, except at the apex, where a stylar protrusion is free from any surrounding tissues. The nut is bilocular with a glabrous endocarp lining. At maturity, a single seed occupies the locular cavity. The embryo is straight and no endosperm is evident. The single-fruited, spiny cupule is most similar to fruits of Fagaceae subfamily Castaneoideae. Bicarpellate fruits and a glabrous endocarp place them within the fossil genus Cascadiacarpa; however, they differ from Cascadiacarpa spinosa in nut wall anatomy, cupule ornamentation, shape, and size. Fruits of Cascadiacarpa exilis sp. nov. are compared with spiny, small compression and impression fossil fruits from the Eocene Taneum Creek locality of Washington State. The characters of the Washington State fossils overlap with those observed in the anatomically preserved Appian Way cupulate fruits and, as such, may represent compression and impression fossils of the same genus. The permineralized fruits document that evalvate, spiny, cupulate nuts of Fagaceae were present and common in the Eocene of western North America.

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 803-813
Author(s):  
Gerald Mayr ◽  
S. Bruce Archibald ◽  
Gary W. Kaiser ◽  
Rolf W. Mathewes

We survey the known avian fossils from Ypresian (early Eocene) fossil sites of the North American Okanagan Highlands, mainly in British Columbia (Canada). All specimens represent taxa that were previously unknown from the Eocene of far-western North America. Wings from the McAbee site are tentatively referred to the Gaviiformes and would constitute the earliest fossil record of this group of birds. A postcranial skeleton from Driftwood Canyon is tentatively assigned to the Songziidae, a taxon originally established for fossils from the Ypresian of China. Two skeletons from Driftwood Canyon and the McAbee site are tentatively referred to Coliiformes and Zygodactylidae, respectively, whereas three further fossils from McAbee, Blakeburn, and Republic (Washington, USA) are too poorly preserved for even a tentative assignment. The specimens from the Okanagan Highlands inhabited relatively high paleoaltitudes with microthermal climates (except Quilchena: lower mesothermal) and mild winters, whereas most other Ypresian fossil birds are from much warmer lowland paleoenvironments with upper mesothermal to megathermal climates. The putative occurrence of a gaviiform bird is particularly noteworthy because diving birds are unknown from other lacustrine Ypresian fossil sites of the Northern Hemisphere. The bones of the putative zygodactylid show a sulphurous colouration, and we hypothesize that this highly unusual preservation may be due to the metabolic activity of sulphide-oxidizing bacteria.


2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby SPRIBILLE ◽  
Christian PRINTZEN

Abstract:Lecidea rubrocastanea T. Sprib. & Printzen is described as new from conifer bark and wood in montane valleys of inland British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington State. It is characterized by its combination of a crustose olivaceous thallus lacking secondary lichen substances, small, dark burgundy-red or maroon apothecia, dark-capped paraphyses, Lecidella-type ascus, small, thin-walled ascospores, and bacilliform conidia. The generic affinities of the species based on analysis of ITS DNA are unclear, but it has numerous morphological traits in common with Japewia.


1997 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 1109-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Guo-Qing ◽  
Mark V. H. Wilson ◽  
Lance Grande

Review of recently collected material of Eohiodon from North America suggests that there are two valid species, E. rosei (Hussakof) and E. woodroffi Wilson. Eohiodon falcatus Grande is identical to E. woodruffi in known skeletal features and nearly all meristic features and is treated as a junior synonym of the latter. The fossil genus Eohiodon Cavender differs from Hiodon Lesueur, which is known from both fossil and extant species, in numerous meristic and osteological features. The caudal skeleton in Eohiodon is nearly identical to that in Hiodon.The traditionally accepted Notopteroidei, containing Lycopteridae, Hiodontidae, and Notopteridae, is a polypheletic group. The Asian fossil family Lycopteridae is not more closely related to Hiodontidae than it is to other taxa in the Osteoglossomorpha, but is sister to all other Osteoglossomorpha. The Hiodontiformes sensu stricto, including only the family Hiodontidae, is the sister-group of the Osteoglossiformes. This family is not more closely related to notopterids than to other taxa in Osteoglossiformes. The Notopteridae are most closely related to the Mormyroidea; together they and the fossil family Ostariostomidae constitute the sister-group of the Osteoglossoidei.Fossil records of Hiodontiformes sensu stricto and Notopteroidei indicate a widespread pre-Neogene biogeographic range of these freshwater teleosts, suggesting that extinction must have been involved in the Cenozoic evolution of these two osteoglossomorph sublineages.


1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Tønsberg

AbstractThe genus Japewia Tønsb. is introduced to accommodate three species including J. subaurifera Muhr & Tønsb. sp. nov. based on material from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, Canada (British Columbia) and U.S.A. (Washington). This species is closely related to Lecidea tornoensis Nyl. but is distinguished in being sorediate and by the production of lobaric acid (accessory) and acetone-soluble pigments. It grows on bark of deciduous and coniferous trees. Lecidea carrollii Coppins & P. James and L. tornoensis Nyl. are transferred to Japewia.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1612-1616 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Poulton ◽  
J. D. Aitken

Sinemurian phosphorites in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta conform with the "West Coast type" phosphorite depositional model. The model indicates that they were deposited on or near the Early Jurassic western cratonic margin, next to a sea or trough from which cold water upwelled. This suggests that the allochthonous terrane Quesnellia lay well offshore in Sinemurian time. The sea separating Quesnellia from North America was partly floored by oceanic crust ("Eastern Terrane") and partly by a thick sequence of rifted, continental terrace wedge rocks comprising the Purcell Supergroup and overlying Paleozoic sequence. This sequence must have been depressed sufficiently that access of upwelling deep currents to the phosphorite depositional area was not impeded.


Author(s):  

Abstract A new distribution map is provided for Atropellis piniphila (Weir) Lohman & Cash. Hosts: Pine (Pinus). Information is given on the geographical distribution in NORTH AMERICA, Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan), USA (Alabama, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington State), (Idaho).


1943 ◽  
Vol 75 (8) ◽  
pp. 139-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles P. Alexander

The crane-flies considered herewith are all from Western North America, from British Columbia to California. The names of the collectors and the location of the type material are indicated at the end of the individual specific accounts; where not stated to the contrary, such types are preserved in my own collection of these flies.


1966 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 839-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Berkeley

Twenty-five species of Polychaeta recently collected off the coast of British Columbia are discussed. Most were taken in waters of considerable depth off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Sixteen are new to British Columbia. Most of these are known from farther south on the west coast of North America, but some from much shallower depths than those from which they are now recorded; two of them are new to the northeast Pacific; one is a new subspecies. The other nine have been previously known from British Columbia, but they are now recorded from much greater depths than hitherto, or in new geographical locations.


Zootaxa ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 1017 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
ROWLAND M. SHELLEY ◽  
WILLIAM A. SHEAR

The new species, Stenozonium leonardi, the northernmost representative of the Polyzoniidae in western North America and the only one north of the Columbia River, is described from the Olympic Peninsula of Washington; it is isolated by some 180 mi (288 km) from S. benedictae Shelley, 1998, in coastal Oregon. Stenozonium alone among the four polyzoniidan genera in western North America consists of entirely allopatric and widely separated species, with one apiece in California, Oregon, and Washington-evidence that it diversified earlier than its ordinal counterparts.


1964 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 933-939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Rosenblatt

A new species, Pholis clemensi, referred to the family Pholidae, is named and described from 12 specimens taken in southern British Columbia waters and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Pholis clemensi is compared with other members of the genus, and a key is given to the North American species.


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