Authors: Boglárka Erdei Funda Akgün Maria Rosaria Barone Lumaga
Publish Date: 2009/12/22
Volume: 285, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 33-49
Abstract
Fossil cycadalean leaves recorded from the Miocene plant assemblage of Soma western Turkey are described and assigned to an extinct genus and species Pseudodioon akyoli Leaf macromorphology suggests affinity with members of the Zamiaceae subfam Encephalartoideae particularly with modern Dioon Micromorphological features on the other hand indicate affinity with modern Cycas Cycadaceae Ordinary cells on the adaxial epidermis are isodiametric and are not differentiated into thick and thinwalled cells This is similar to Encephalartoideaelike fossils reported from the Cenozoic of the Northern Hemisphere and even from the Mesozoic Shared macromorphological traits of P akyoli and other coeval Encephalartoideaelike fossil cycadalean leaves from Europe suggest that an extinct group of cycads inhabited southern Europe from the western part of Turkey through Greece and France to Switzerland in the north during the OligoMioceneWe are grateful to Károly Bóka for helping in cuticular preparations and SEM studies to Kriszta Buczkó for assistance in SEM studies and to Tanju Kaja for providing access to the fossil material of the Natural History Museum of the Aegean University Izmir We are also indebted to Paolo de Luca for providing access to the extant collection of the Botanical Garden of the University of Naples and to Mike Pole for obtaining extant material from the Toowong Botanical Gardens Brisbane Australia and for language corrections Finally we owe our thanks to Else Marie Friis and an anonymous reviewer for their useful and critical suggestions Study trips to Turkey Izmir Soma and the Botanical Garden of Naples Italy were supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences MTA The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey TÜBITAK and The National Research Council of Italy CNR
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