Anatomically preserved ovules are described from silicified peat of Late Permian age collected from Skaar Ridge in the central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica. The small ovules are significant in possessing fleshy apical appendages and a funnel-shaped micropylar extension formed by the sarcotestal layer of the integument, by which they differ from all other Permian ovules described to date. The apical modifications may have functioned in pollination and/or seed dispersal. Similarity with the apical organization of earlier Paleozoic ovules is shown to be superficial, since the analogous structures are developmentally derived from different tissues. Although the ovules occur in rocks in which glossopterids are the only gymnosperms represented, there is insufficient evidence to assign them to a taxonomic group. These ovules are of particular importance because there are so few anatomically preserved gymnosperm reproductive structures known from the Permian and thus provide new data on the diversity of late Paleozoic gymnosperms.

中文翻译：

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来自南极洲二叠纪的一个不寻常的、结构上保存完好的胚珠

解剖学上保存的胚珠是从从南极洲横贯南极山脉中部的斯卡尔山脊收集的晚二叠世硅化泥炭中描述的。小胚珠在拥有肉质顶端附属物和由珠被的肌睾层形成的漏斗形珠孔延伸方面很重要，因此它们不同于迄今为止描述的所有其他二叠纪胚珠。顶端修饰可能在授粉和/或种子传播中起作用。与早期古生代胚珠的顶端组织的相似性被证明是表面的，因为类似的结构在发育上来自不同的组织。尽管胚珠出现在岩石中，其中舌翅目是裸子植物的唯一代表，但没有足够的证据将它们归入一个分类群。