Elucidating the affinities and habitat of ancient, widespread Cyperaceae: Volkeria messelensis gen. et sp. nov., a fossil mapanioid sedge from the Eocene of Europe.
Elucidating the affinities and habitat of ancient, widespread Cyperaceae: Volkeria messelensis gen. et sp. nov., a fossil mapanioid sedge from the Eocene of Europe.
复制标题
阐明古老、广泛分布的莎草科植物：Volkeria messelensis gen. 的亲缘关系和栖息地。
DOI：
10.3732/ajb.0800427
复制
发表时间：
2009
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
M. Stampanoni
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Selena Y. Smith;M. Collinson;D. Simpson;P. Rudall;F. Marone;M. Stampanoni
莎草（莎草科）是一个经济和生态上重要的单子叶植物类群，至少可以追溯到古新世。虽然现代的属在渐新世之前大多是未知的，但几个灭绝的分类群被认为是最早的莎草。它们的亲缘关系至今尚不清楚，因为它们被发现为孤立的，经常磨损的果实或内果皮。德国梅塞尔始新世中期保存异常完好的莎草化石提供了更多可供鉴定的特征。首次发现具原位花粉的化石莎草科果序，并显示出早期分叉的榕果莎草的特征。花粉类似于部落Hypolytreae。与现存分类群的比较表明与Hypolytrum和Mapania最接近的亲缘关系。然而，梅塞尔化石代表了一个独特的分类群，Volkeria messelensis gen. et sp. nov.如果没有果序和花粉的额外特征，梅塞尔果实将被置于灭绝的Caricoidea属，一种典型的始新世莎草，广泛分布在欧亚大陆。果实结构的相似性表明Caricoidea也是一个mapanioid莎草。今天在热带潮湿的森林和沼泽中发现了Mapanioid莎草，这种分布表明早期的莎草占据了类似的栖息地，不像许多现代的莎草，并且不是开放草原植被的前身。
The sedges (family Cyperaceae) are an economically and ecologically important monocot group dating back at least to the Paleocene. While modern genera are mostly unknown before the Oligocene, several extinct taxa are recognized as the earliest sedges. Their affinities have been unclear until now, because they are found as isolated, often abraded fruits or endocarps. Exceptionally preserved sedge fossils from the Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany yield more characters for identification. Fossil cyperacean infructescences with in situ pollen are recognized for the first time and show features of the early-divergent mapanioid sedges. Pollen resembles that of tribe Hypolytreae. Comparisons with extant taxa suggest the closest affinities with Hypolytrum and Mapania. However, the Messel fossils represent a distinct taxon, Volkeria messelensis gen. et sp. nov. Without the additional characters of infructescence and pollen, the Messel fruits would have been placed in the extinct genus Caricoidea, a typical Eocene sedge that was widespread across Eurasia. Similarities of fruit structure suggest that Caricoidea was also a mapanioid sedge. Mapanioid sedges are found today in tropical wet forests and swamps, a distribution suggesting that early sedges occupied a similar habitat, unlike many modern sedges, and were not precursors to open grassland vegetation.