Conifers; Early Cretaceous; Ferns; Lacustrine; Vegetation; Paleontology
Abstract :
[en] The Lower Cretaceous plant assemblage of Bernissart (Mons Basin, Belgium) was studied in detail during the 1900s, but no recent revisions have been performed. The taxonomy of plant taxa recovered from this site is updated, which includes one undetermined “aquatic plant” taxon, nine fern taxa (Cladophlebis sp., Hausmannia dichotoma, Phlebopteris dunkeri, Matoniaceae indet., Ruffordia goeppertii, Onychiopsis psilotoides, Coniopteris sp., Korallipteris sp., and Weichselia reticulata), aff. genus Taeniopteris (of unknown affinity), and five undetermined conifer organs (one stem, two types of seed, one cone, and a dispersed bract). Two lithologies are identified, both consisting of grey clays, one with a smooth surface while the other is more irregular. The large number of available specimens has permitted the study of the species richness and relative abundance of the locality and both lithologies. The taphonomical analysis of the specimens including the preservation of the remains, fragment size, and associations between taxa, together with the diversity analyses, results in four assemblages: “algae” in the water column of the lake; a vegetation composed of Weichselia and Phlebopteris closest to the lake margin; Hausmannia, Onychiopsis and the other ferns further away from the margin; and Matoniaceae indet., conifers and aff. Taeniopteris even further away from the depositional site. In general, the plant assemblage at Bernissart consists of open vegetation, which probably belonged to an early successional stage that was burnt frequently by wildfires.
Blanco-Moreno, Candela; Unidad de Paleontología, Dpto. Biología. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain ; Centro para la Integración en Paleobiología (CIPb-UAM), Madrid, Spain
Prestianni, Cyrille ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géologie > Evolution and diversity dynamics lab ; OD Earth and Life, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
Language :
English
Title :
Taxonomic revision and palaeoecological interpretation of the plant assemblage of Bernissart (Barremian, Belgium)
We would like to thank Alain Dreze from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences for the access to the fossil material. Material was accessed with the support of the SYNTHESYS Project (http://www.synthesys.info/), financed by the European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 Integrating Activities Program. Candela Blanco-Moreno is supported by an FPI-UAM predoctoral grant. Cyrille Prestianni was funded by the BRAIN project BR/143/A3/COLDCASE in the framework of which this work has been done. We would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their comments, which much improved the manuscript.We would like to thank Alain Dreze from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences for the access to the fossil material. Material was accessed with the support of the SYNTHESYS Project ( http://www.synthesys.info/ ), financed by the European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 Integrating Activities Program. Candela Blanco-Moreno is supported by an FPI-UAM predoctoral grant. Cyrille Prestianni was funded by the BRAIN project BR/143/A3/COLDCASE in the framework of which this work has been done. We would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their comments, which much improved the manuscript.
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