Michael Wachtler
Verlag DoloMythos - Innichen
www.dolomythos.com
Euro 34,90
A 140 million year old living world
The sediments from the Lower Cretaceous (Berrasian), known as German Wealden, mainly from the clay pits around Duingen, have fascinated researchers since the early 19th century due to their abundance of fossils. Sparsely occurring horsetails (Equisetites sp.), and ferns (Dennstaedtites geinitzii nov. comb., as well as Wiedenrothia klipsteini, nov. gen.), but a large number of well-preserved gymnosperms such as ginkgos (Ginkgoites pluripartitus), conifers (especially Sphenolepis sternbergiana, but also Tsugites garbermannii n. sp., and Tsugites linkii nov. comb.), as well as numerous genera of cycads, formed a floral community that was relatively poor in species but abundant in quantity. The highlight is the large number of plant remains from a family, which has been classified under a variety of names, but above all as Bennettitales. Although these were sometimes associated with the beginning of the angiosperms, well-preserved new finds show that they belong to the cycads and are related to today‘s genus Dioon (Dioonites dunkerianum, Dioonites lyellanum nov. comb.). There are also Zamia cycads (Zamites aequalis, Ctenis humboldtianum, Nilssonia schaumburgense, Ceratozamites kurwius nov. gen.) and sparse ancestors of the genus Cycas (Taeniopteris beyrichii). A club moss, Seppeltia bockii gen. n. sp. stands somewhat isolated there. Although we are on the arising of flowering plants appearing a little later everywhere, there is no evidence of their appearance or at least possible lines of development in the Lower Cretaceous of Europe. Their rapid appearance must therefore have other reasons, as happened at the Carboniferous-Permian boundary with the equally sudden spread of gymnosperms (conifers, cycads, ginkgos): climate change and, in the case of angiosperms, the emergence of birds as ideal seed dispersers.
with over 400 photos and illustrations
Michael Wachtler
Dolomythos-Museum, ISSN 2974-7376, Year 4/3, p. 80, year 2025
Euro 49,00
