Need Help Id'ing Fossil Pine Cones

[RJB]

  I decided to make a short video of my fossil pine cones from Argentina and did some research to get information so that in the video it would sound like I know what I'm doing.  That didnt work too well.  I could only find info on the Araucaria pine cones.  By any chance would any of you smart folks know what these other cones are.  I really need some help with these.  Thank you so much.

 

RB

[Carl]

I have heard the smaller ones referred to as the male cones of the same tree. Look into that and see what you find.

[piranha]

They are both ovulate cones. The large specimens are Araucaria mirabilis and the small ones are Pararaucaria patagonica.

 

 

"The lack of pollen cones has likewise been speculated upon by Calder (1953). She believes their absence is due to the season in which the forest was covered. Perhaps evidence of them will yet be found in the volcanic ash matrix. Menendez (1960) described a pollen cone, Masculostrobus altoensis Menendez, from the regions around Cerro Alto. His work dealt with four cone specimens containing spherical pollen grains 100-120 / μm in diam. Sufficient details of anatomy were not present to assign the cones to any of the major conifer families. These cones may represent the pollen cones of Araucaria mirabilis, Pararaucaria patagonica, or perhaps another gymnosperm found in the Cerro Alto forest. As Menendez (1960) and Calder (1953) point out, the cones in the Field Museum collections considered by Wieland (1935) to be "staminate" are actually smaller ovulate cones. No other of the collecting localities has reported pollen cones but the Cerro Alto region."

 

Stockey, R.A. 1975

Seeds and Embryos of Araucaria mirabilis.

American Journal of Botany, 62(8):856-868  PDF LINK

 

Stockey, R.A, 1977

Reproductive Biology of the Cerro Cuadrado (Jurassic) Fossil Conifers: Pararaucaria patagonica.

American Journal of Botany, 64(6):733-744  PDF LINK