The presumed ginkgophyte Umaltolepis has seed-bearing structures resembling those of Peltaspermales and Umkomasiales

Fabiany Herrera, Gongle Shi, Niiden Ichinnorov, Masamichi Takahashi, Eugenia V. Bugdaeva, Patrick S. Herendeen, Peter R. Crane*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

The origins of the five groups of living seed plants, including the single relictual species Ginkgo biloba, are poorly understood, in large part because of very imperfect knowledge of extinct seed plant diversity. Here we describe well-preserved material from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia of the previously enigmatic Mesozoic seed plant reproductive structure Umaltolepis, which has been presumed to be a ginkgophyte. Abundant new material shows that Umaltolepis is a seed-bearing cupule that was borne on a stalk at the tip of a short shoot. Each cupule is umbrella-like with a central column that bears a thick, resinous, four-lobed outer covering, which opens from below. Four, pendulous,winged seeds are attached to the upper part of the column and are enclosed by the cupule. Evidence from morphology, anatomy, and field association suggests that the short shoots bore simple, elongate Pseudotorellia leaves that have similar venation and resin ducts to leaves of living Ginkgo. Umaltolepis seed-bearing structures are very different from those of Ginkgo but very similar to fossils described previously as Vladimaria. Umaltolepis and Vladimaria do not closely resemble the seed-bearing structures of any living or extinct plant, but are comparable in some respects to those of certain Peltaspermales and Umkomasiales (corystosperms). Vegetative similarities of the Umaltolepis plant to Ginkgo, and reproductive similarities to extinct peltasperms and corystosperms, support previous ideas that Ginkgo may be the last survivor of a once highly diverse group of extinct plants, several of which exhibited various degrees of ovule enclosure.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)E2385-E2391
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume114
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 21 2017

Funding

We thank T. Gombosuren and O. Nyamsambuu for assistance with fieldwork in Mongolia; I. Glasspool and S. Grant for curatorial assistance; B. Strack for assistance with scanning electron microscopy; Z.-X. Luo and A. I. Neander for permission and assistance with X-ray tomography; G. Bedoya for nomenclatural suggestions; P. von Knorring for the plant reconstruction; P. Knopf, A. B. Leslie, and S. Carlquist for comments on the fossils; and J. M. Hilton and S. McLoughlin for valuable comments on the manuscript. Funding for this work was provided by National Science Foundation Grant DEB-1348456 (to P.S.H. and P.R.C.) and by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (21405010 and 24405015) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (to M.T.).

Keywords

  • Cretaceous
  • Ginkgo
  • Mongolia
  • Umaltolepis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The presumed ginkgophyte Umaltolepis has seed-bearing structures resembling those of Peltaspermales and Umkomasiales'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this