Ploufolia cerciforme gen. et comb. nov.: Aquatic angiosperm leaves from the Upper Albian of north-eastern Spain

L. M. Sender (1) , Bernard Gomez (2) , J. B. Diez (3) , Clement Coiffard (4, 5) , Carles Martin-Closas (6) , Uxue Villanueva-Amadoz (1) , J. Ferrer (1)

1 Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra
2 PEPS - PaleoEnvironnements et PaleobioSphere
3 Facultad Ciencias del Mar
4 Laboratoire de Paléobotanique et Paléoécologie
5 CR2P - Centre de recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements
6 Departament d*Estratigrafia, Paleontologiai Geociències Marines

An aquatic angiosperm, Ploufolia cerciforme gen. et comb. nov., is reported from the Upper Albian of the Utrillas Formation at the Plou locality, Teruel Province, north-eastern Spain. Ploufolia cerciforme shows eccentric peltate attachment, elliptic to obovate nanophylls, one medial primary vein and lateral veins that dichotomize several times before merging into an intramarginal vein, which links small glands that occur on the convex portions of the marginal undulations. Ploufolia cerciforme shows most affinities with extant Nymphaeales and both sedimentological and taphonomic evidence supports a freshwater lacustrine habit for P. cerciforme. The presence of marginal glands in leaves of P. cerciforme is related to a leaf guttation mechanism, as occurs in plants living in water saturated habitats. By the Albian, aquatic angiosperms were already well diversified and often dominant in western European wetland environments.

Mots clés: early angiosperm; freshwater; Early Cretaceous; Albian; Iberian Chain; Spain

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

L. M. Sender, Bernard Gomez, J. B. Diez, Clement Coiffard, Carles Martin-Closas, et al.. Ploufolia cerciforme gen. et comb. nov.: Aquatic angiosperm leaves from the Upper Albian of north-eastern Spain. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 2010, 161 (1-2), pp.77-86. ⟨10.1016/j.revpalbo.2010.03.001⟩. ⟨hal-00670292⟩