This is Mazon Monday post #242. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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This is Mazon Thursday. We moved this week's Mazon Monday to Thursday to do a Veteran's Day post on Monday.
After Laveine (1967)
Linopteris neuropteroides is a very rare seed fern known from Mazon Creek and other Pennsylvanian localities. It was originally named Dictyopteris neuropteroides by Hanns Bruno Geinitz (1814 - 1900) in 1855. Geinitz was a German geologist. He is most known for his research into the rocks and fossils of the Kingdom of Saxony. These date to the Carboniferous and Cretaceous Periods. He also worked extensively on the fauna and flora of the Permian or, at that time, 'Dyas' formation. Additionally, he described the flora of the coal-formations of Nebraska.
Dictyopteris neuropteroides was renamed to Linopteris neuropteroides by Walter A, Bell (1889 - 1969) in 1938 from material found in the coal fields of Nova Scotia. Bell was a Canadian paleontologist and geologist, who worked for the Geologic Survey of Canada. He wrote many papers during his career, mostly about the Carboniferous stratigraphy, paleobotany, and paleontology of Atlantic Canada. Many consider him the founding father of Canadian Carboniferous stratigraphy.
L. neuropteroides appears on page 194 of Jack Wittry's "A Comprehesive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".
Linopteris neuropteroides Geinitz, 1855
1855. Dictyopteris neuropteroides Geinitz: p. 23, pl. 28, fig. 6
1938. Linopteris neuropteroides var. major; Bell: p. 66, pl. 61, figs. 1-4
1958. Linopteris neuropteroides; Langford: p. 224: fig. 395
1959. Linopteris neuropteroides; Crookall: p. 209: pl. 48, fig. 4
1967. Linopteris neuropteroides; Laveine: p. 279, pl. 79; pl. 83, fig. 3
1979. Linopteris neuropteroides; Janssen: p. 161, fig. 152DESCRIPTION: The pinnules are usually slightly falcate. The bases are truncate and the sides appear parallel in the lower half. The upper half tapers gently to a rounded apex. The midvein is weak, but remains visible for four-fifths the pinnule's length. The lateral veins are fine and close. They rise at a steep angle near the midvein, then arch to the margins. Along the way, they are anastomosed to form long, narrow, and sharply pointed meshes that meet the margin at an oblique angle.
REMARKS: Linopteris neuropteroides is very rare and, as in most other areas, the Mazon Creek examples are only known from individual pinnules. This species is closest in form to Reticulopteris munsterii var. dawsonii which is far more common and generally found as complete pinnae. Unlike R. munsterii, L. neuropteroides lateral veins don't simply touch, but are interconnected or anastomosed to form a mesh pattern.
Specimens
Field Museum P29861
