Macroneuropteris
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Macroneuropteris Temporal range: Carboniferous |
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| Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri, specimen from Mazon Creek fossil beds in the collection at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Cycadophyta |
| Class: | Cycadopsida |
| Order: | Medullosales |
| Family: | Neurodontopteridaceae |
| Genus: |
Macroneuropteris Cleal et al., 1990 |
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Macroneuropteris is a genus of Carboniferous seed plants in the order Medullosales. The genus is best known for the species Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri, a medium-size tree that was common throughout the late Carboniferous Euramerica. Three similar species, M. macrophylla, M. britannica and M. subauriculata are also included in the genus.
The most abundant species of this genus, Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri, has had a long taxonomic history since it was first recognized in fossils found near Oxford, England by Edward Lhuyd in 1669. He referred to these leaves as Phyllites mineralis. It is illustrated and noted in Lhuyd's Lythophylacii Britannici Ichnographia, an early manuscript on English fossils published in 1699 with the financial help of Isaac Newton. The species was further described in the Herbarium Diluvianum written in 1723 by the botanist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer. Nearly hundred years after Scheuchzer's death, the species was renamed Neuropteris scheuchzeri by professor Hoffmann in 's 1826 atlas of German Geology, Deutschland, geognostisch-geologisch dargestellt. In the 1800s, similar fossilized foliage was found in North America. The names Neuropteris cordata var. angustifolia, Neuropteris angustifolia, Neuropteris acutifolia, Neuropteris hirsuta, Neuropteris decipiens, and Odontopteris subcuneata were used for these but are now all considered to be forms of Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri. The genus was taxonomically refined in 1989 through epidermal research led by C. J. Cleal. Based on that work, the genus Neuropteris was divided into four genera, Neuropteris, Macroneuropteris, Neurocallipteris, and Laveineopteris.
The genus Macroneuropteris is used in some cases as a leaf organ taxon to refer to just the foliage of these trees. And in other cases, it is used to refer to the entire tree. The genus is associated with the stems and trunks of the wood organ taxon Medullosa noei. Together these fossils describe parts of a medullosalean seed fern tree that was likely about 8–10 meters tall with an upright trunk with large compound frond-like leaves.
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