中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所机构知识库

The presence of noeggerathialeans has never been recognized in palynology in the Carboniferous and Permian floras, although they arc a very common group as evidenced by megafossil floras. Noeggerathialeans including over 20 genera and 50 species are quite common in the Carboniferous and Permian floras and especially in Cathaysia (present-day China and East Asia). While the spores of this group will have been identified in the dispersed record, they have not been assigned to it. Our recent investigation on the Asselian peat-forming vegetation from the Wuda Coalfield in Inner Mongolia reveals that three species of the noeggerathialean plants Tingia and Paratingia (namely, Tingia unita, Paratingia wudensis and Paratingia sp. 1) are ubiquitous floral elements, and in some areas represent the dominant ecological plant group. In particular, most of the specimens are ontogenetically mature with well-developed reproductive organs. This presents an excellent opportunity to examine their in situ spores. In situ microspores are small (only 30 mu m on average) and are assigned to the miospore genus Punctatisporites/Gulisporites. Megaspores are poorly preserved but only show evidence of a single functional megaspore per sporangium (monomegaspory) with megaspores of the Calamospora type but unexpanded and not completely filling the sporangia. Spores of Chinese Tingia and Paratingia species are surprisingly identical, both in terms of their morphology and dimensions, but are different from all other noeggerathialean spores produced by the genera Discinites, Noeggerathiuestrobus, Lacoeu, Tingiostuchyu and Dorsalistachya. European and American Discinites species produced microspores of the Calamospora type unlike those of the Punctutisporites/ Gulisporites type described here from Chinese Tingia, Paratingia and Discinites species so far known. In this context, noeggerathialean spores of Punctutisporites/Gulisporites from China have most likely been treated as the spores of sphenopsids in dispersed preservation, rather than being identified as the Sporae-dispersue of noeggerathialeans in the late Paleozoic landscapes of Cathaysia. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.