This is the "Fossil Friday" post #19t. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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For this week, we have a seed fern from the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. Odontopteris subcuneata has been found on the same plant with Macroneuropteris scheuchzerii and thus been classified as a heteromorph (a derivation from the usual form) and placed info synonymy with M. scheuchzerii. O. subcuneata was described by Charles James Fox Bunbury in 1847. At that time, he was Britain's leading paleobotanist. He published a series of papers on the fossil floras of the Carboniferous, Jurassic, and Neogene. There is a book on Bunbury's life and contributions to paleobotany, which are significant.
O. subcuneata is a growth stage of M. scheuchzeri. If you are lucky, you might find one in the act of splitting from a single large pinnule into multiple usually rounded pinnules. For more information, see Mazon Monday #100.
This particular specimen of Odontopteris subcuneata was collected by Jim and Sylvia Konecny in the 1960's. It is in the process of splitting into multiple rounded pinnules.
