This is Mazon Monday post #99. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
-----------------------------------------------------
Calamostachys is the cone portion of Calamites. Recall the Langford diagram which details the parts of Calamites. The round seed like part of these cones are actually sporagia, which Calamites used to reproduce. Calamites are horsetails. Their closest living relative is Equisetum, which is an extant species of horsetail.
Calamostachys was first described by Frederick Ernest Weiss (1865-1953) an Anglo-German botanist. While primarily a botanist, he also worked extensively with coal-balls fossil plants and published quite a few paleobotanical papers during his career at Owens College (later Victoria University of Manchester) in northern England.
Calamostachys tuberculata was first described by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761-1838) in 1825 as Bruckmannia tuberculata. He was a leading scientist in Europe during the early 1800's, who knew and worked with Alexander von Humboldt. His book "A Survey of Saxifrages in Pictures" was based on his own materials collected on scientific trips primarily to Bavaria.
1838 painting of Sternberg by Alexander Clarot
Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (born on January 6th, 1761 at Březina Castle) was one of the leading scientists of the first half of the 19th century, with a special interest in botany, geology and paleontology, and is considered as one of the founders of paleobotany. He is the author of an extensive and precious collection of minerals, fossils and herbs that became the core collection of the National Museum in Prague, founded by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg.
Kaspar Maria was born the eighth and last child (third son) of Johann von Sternberg and Anna Josefa Krakovská of Kolovraty, into a not wealthy Czech aristocratic family of Sternbergs.
Lesquereux placed B. tuberculata in Asterphyllites. It was later moved to Calamostachys by Bell in 1938. George Langford described it as Calamostachys tuberculata in his books in the early 1960s. C. tuberculata is rare and has been found associated with Annularia inflata.
Calamostachys appears in the "ESCONI Keys to Mazon Creek Plants".
CONES
Calamites fruiting structures consisted of small slender cones hanging from branch tips. They can be easily distinguished from the cones of Lepidodendron and Sigillaria by the clear arrangement of the bracts and spore cases (sporangia) in whorls.
Entire cones are found infrequently. The two most common genera are illustrated in Figure 41 and Figure 42. They can only be identified by spore case attachment. Calamostachys spore cases are attached to the strobilus, whereas Paleostachys spore cases are attached to the bracts. They often occur sterile with no visible spore cases and would then be identified as Volkmania (see below).
Calamostachys tuberculata can be found on page 75 of "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".
Calamostachys tuberculata (Sternberg) Weiss, 1884
1825. Bruckmannia tuberculata Sternberg: p. 29, pl. 45, fig. 2
1879. Asterophyllites sp. Lesquereux: pl. 3, fig. 10
1938. Calamostachys tuberculata. Bell: p. 86, pl. 88, fig. 3; pl. 90, fig 3; pl. 91, figs. 2-4
1963. Calamostachys sp. and pedunculata (non Williamson); Langford: p. 139, figs. 682, 684, 686
1969. Calamostachys tuberculata Weiss; Crookall: p. 755, pl. 149, fig. 4
1969. Calamostachys tuberculata Weiss; Darrah: p. 174, pl. 79, fig. 2DESCRIPTION: These cylindrical cones are 7 to 15 cm or more long, average about 13 mm wide, and are borne on a short stalk. Whorls of sterile bracts are about 5 mm apart. The sterile bracts are 4 to 6 mm long, linear lanceolate, rise at right angles to the axis, then curve upward around the sporangia. The sporangia are in groups of four, ovoid, 2.5 to 3 mm long and 1.5 to 2 mm wide. As a fossil, they may appear singularly as in Fig. 1, or in a set as shown in the inset of Fig. 2.
REMARKS: Calamostachys tuberculata is rare. In other localities, it has been shown to be associated with Annularia stellata (= Annularia inflata).
Specimens
From georgesbasement.com. It appeared in the Langford books.
This huge specimen was the subject of Fossil Friday #61. It was found by Joe Vitosky on a Danville field trip in the spring of 2021.
ESCONI member specimen
