Biology:Cestites

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Short description: Extinct genus of liverworts

Cestites
Cestites mirabilis holotype.jpg
Holotype of Cestites mirabilis, from Douglas Lake Member of Lenoir Limestone, at Douglas Dam, Tennessee[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
Division:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Genus:
Cestites

Caster and Brooks(1956)[2]
Type species
Casterlorum crispum
Retallack (2019)

Cestites ("girdle") is a controversial fossil from the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian, 460 million years old) Douglas Lake Member of the Lenoir Limestone from Douglas Dam Tennessee.[1] At first considered a ctenophore by Caster and Brooks,[2] it was later interpreted as a genus of liverwort by Gregory Retallack.

Thallus of Cestites mirabilis with archegoniophores

File:Cestites mirabilis sketch.tif

File:Cestites mirabilis spore.tif

Description

Cestites has a narrow gametophyte thallus, with a wide midrib and dichotomizing at long intervals. The archegoniophores are parasol shaped and clustered.

Interpretation

The liverwort interpretation of this fossil has been considered controversial in some quarters [3] but accepted elsewhere.[4]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Retallack, G.J. (2019). "Ordovician land plants and fungi from Douglas Dam, Tennessee". The Palaeobotanist 68: 1–33. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Caster, K.E.; Brooks, H.K. (1956). "New fossils from the Canadian–Chazyan (Ordovician) hiatus in Tennessee". Bulletins of American Paleontology 36: 157–199. 
  3. Edwards, Dianne; Morris, Jennifer L.; Axe, Lindsey; Duckett, Jeffrey G.; Pressel, Silvia; Kenrick, Paul (2022). "Piecing together the eophytes – a new group of ancient plants containing cryptospores" (in en). New Phytologist 233 (3): 1440–1455. doi:10.1111/nph.17703. ISSN 0028-646X. PMID 34806774. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.17703. 
  4. Leigh, Egbert (2022). "Fossil soils: trace fossils of ecosystems on land and windows on the context of evolution" (in en). Evolution Education and Outreach 15:14: 1–5. doi:10.1186/s12052-022-00173-3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-022-00173-3. 

Wikidata ☰ Q104816900 entry