Unknown fossil fern from Natural History of Cal Poly Humboldt

[Melinda B]

My hope is that someone can confirm that this fern fossil is  Sphenopteris artemisaefolioides.

Any additional information on this species would be appreciated.

[Fossildude19]

Any info on where this came from?

 

This looks more like some species of Alethopteris, to me.

 

@paleoflor  @fiddlehead

[Fossildude19]

Link to a Sphenopteris artemisaefolioides

[piranha]

This published specimen has different morphological features than the Paleo Portal example.

 

 

Arnold, C.A. 1949

Fossil Flora of the Michigan Coal Basin.

Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, 7(9):131-269  PDF LINK

[fossilcrazy]

Looks like Alethopteris serlii and probably from the Mazon area like the Dresden stip mine lakes.

[connorp]

Definitely not a sphenopterid. Alethopteris or something similar. Probably, but not necessarily, from the Mazon Creek area. But with a blurry picture and no locality information, I am not confident in saying more.

Edited November 14, 2023 by connorp

[hemipristis]

Pecopteris?

[paleoflor]

This is definitely some species of Alethopteris...

 

How did you arrive at Sphenopteris artemisiaefolioides Crépin 1881, if I may ask? Not a common name and not a typical "first guess" from people. This species was introduced by Francois Crépin in the second volume of Mourlon’s (1880-1881) “Géologie de la Belgique”. Unfortunately, I do not know of any PDFs, but I added a photo of p. 60 below:

 

 

Note Crépin introduced the name Sphenopteris artemisiaefolioides for specimens figured previously by Boulay (1876), characterising it as a "synonym of S. artemisiaefolia, Boulay non Sternberg” (even though Boulay (1876) assigned the specimens to "Eremopteris artemisiaefolia Schimper"). This is all the text, there are no further written descriptions provided by Crépin. It is worth noting that Plate 1, Figure 6 of Boulay (1876) actually consists of two specimens, with the figure caption describing specimens “a gauche” and “a droite” of the label. The PDF of Boulay (1876) can be consulted HERE and these are the relevant parts of Plate 1 and its caption:

 

 

Unfortunately, the images I could find are not of the best quality. It is also interesting to note that later workers (e.g., Gothan, 1929) consider the two specimens of Boulay (1876, Plate 1, Figure 6) to represent two distinct plants. Gothan (1929) considers only the specimen on the right representative for S. artemisaefolioides. Note Crépin (1881) further refers to Plate 19, Figure 1 of Sauveur (1848). A PDF of this work can be downloaded HERE and the relevant Figure 1 of Plate 19 is reproduced below:

 

This drawing is more clear and also quite comparable with most other specimens featured in the literature. Zeiller (1886), for example, published drawings of two specimens from the coal basin of Valenciennes. Herewith a copy of Plate 14, Figures 2 and 3:

 

 

Gothan (1929) shows a photo of a specimen from the Piesberg quarry in Germany on Plate 3, Figure 4:

 

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by paleoflor

[paleoflor]

17 hours ago, piranha said:

This published specimen has different morphological features than the Paleo Portal example.

 

 

Arnold, C.A. 1949

Fossil Flora of the Michigan Coal Basin.

Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, 7(9):131-269  PDF LINK

 

This specimen puzzles me a bit, as it differs from the European examples of Sphenopteris artemisiaefolioides Crépin 1881. Thanks for sharing the paper! Pity Arnold (1949) does not include a synonymy, as I would've liked to see which previously published specimens he considered as suitable reference material...

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Alethopteris serlii in my opinion. Definitely not a sphenopterid.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by Mark Kmiecik
fix typo

[Fossildude19]

16 hours ago, hemipristis said:

Pecopteris?

Not Pecopteris.
See this  website: