This is Mazon Monday post #212. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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We have a very rare plant for this week's post. Aphlebia crispa is a leafy plant that was lettuce-like in appearance. It had wide distribution as it's found in fossil deposits throughout England, Europe, and North America. Aphlebia is thought to be associated with ferns attached to the rachis of many species of Pecopteris and Sphenopteris. The name Aphlebia is derived from the Greek "phleb-", meaning vein, and "a-", meaning without.
A. crispa was described by Christian August von Gutbier (1798-1866) in 1835. Gutbier was a German paleontologist who described many Carboniferous plants from deposits in and around Germany. His name is also associated with various Permian animals like Parasaurus geintzi, which is an extinct species of pareiasaur, a plant eating parareptile.
A. crispa can be found on page 134 of Jack Wittry's "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".
Aphlebia crispa Gutbier, 1835
1835-36. Fucoides crispus Gutbier: p. 13, pl. i, fig. 11
1858. Pachyphyllum lactuca Lesquereux: p. 863, pl. 8, figs. 4, 5
1870. Hymenophyllites lactuca Gutbier; Lesquereux: p. 415
1899. Aphlebia crispa (Gutbier) Presl.; White: p. 105
1929. Aphlebia crispa Gutbier; Crookall: p. 61, pl. 30, fig. g
1958. Aphlebia crispa Gutbier; Langford: p. 287, fig. 532
1976. Aphlebia crispa Gutbier; Crookall: p. 856, pl. 160, fig. 1; pl. 163, fig. 2DESCRIPTION: The main rachis is wide and made of parallel veins. Thick bundles of veins, which are decurrent to the main rachis, form into a flat lamina. The lamina appears as flattened veins and is highly variable in shape. Veins are tightly arranged and occasionally divide, but never become separate.
REMARKS: Aphlebia crispa is very rare, but it has a wide distribution and can be found throughout the Middle Pennsylvanian in England, Europe, and North America.
Specimens
From Wittry
From the Field Museum
From Fossil Friday #176 - Heath McDonald
