Activity

  • Patrick Hsieh posted a new specimen. 3 years, 5 months ago

    3 years, 5 months ago
    3 years, 5 months ago

    Patrick Hsieh has contributed specimen mFeM 89396 to myFOSSIL!

    • Hi @patrick-hsieh awesome specimen! @mackenzie-smith may be able to help narrow down the ID a little more!

    • Hello @patrick-hsieh! Sorry for the late response, I was teaching a stressful class last semester. Maybe some cycad/cycadeoid foliage or even palm or other monocot if it is late enough in the Cretaceous. This is a formation I’m unfamiliar with and is exciting. The last two images could either be a fern pinna or a floral part (perhaps bract as opposed to petal). I’m leaning more towards the fern pinna.

    • @mackenzie-smith No worries, thanks for the ID! It is late Campanian (73 mya) according to: https://naturalhistory2.si.edu/ETE/ETE_People_Wing_ResearchThemes_BCR.html I’m terrible with botany, what would be the taxonomic name for ferns?

    • @patrick-hsieh That depends on who you talk to because it depends on if you consider horsetails to be closely related to ferns or not. If you don’t then they are in the phylum Pterophyta or Pteridophyta. If you do then the phylum would be Monilophyta. Because Darwin Core (the drop down menu) is more extant/molecular based, Monilophyta will probably start appearing when you type it. I’ve also seen Polypodiophyta though not in a professional sense. Class would be Polypodiopsida. There are many families of ferns and the easiest way to ID them is from sori (the reproductive parts) but those aren’t always present/preserved. Someone may have done a treatment of this flora and may have a name for the fern (although with a lot of floras it is equally likely that someone hasn’t).