Elsevier

Palaeoworld

Volume 29, Issue 3, September 2020, Pages 590-605
Palaeoworld

Early Jurassic flora from South Primorye, Far East, Russia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2019.09.002Get rights and content

Abstract

A unique Early Jurassic flora from the Schitukhe Formation of South Primorye, Russia is further studied, with newly collected materials. The flora is composed of over 50 taxa. It is dominated by ferns (Dipteridaceae, Marattiaceae, etc.), cycads (Pterophyllum, Nilssonia, Ctenis, Taeniopteris, etc.), conifers (Cycadocarpidium, Podozamites, etc.), and other seasonally deciduous gymnosperms (Czekanowskiales, Ginkgoales, etc.), showing a special flora living in an ecotone zone between the Palaeofloristic realms of Siberian Flora and Euro-Sinian Flora in the East Asia during the early Early Jurassic. The flora is compared with its coeval floras from China and Japan. A new species Cycadocarpidium pacificum n. sp. is reported. The age of the Schitukhe flora is constrained by the marine mollusca fossils yielded in the sandwich marine beds of the Schitukhe Formation, as the Hettangian–Sinemurian.

Introduction

The fossil plants from the Schitukhe Formation (i.e., Schitukhe flora) in the Petrovka (formerly Schitukhe) and Litovka (formerly Sibichuan) river basins of southeastern Primorye, Far East Russia were first collected in the 20th century by N.A. Belyavsky, V.D. Prynada, and B.I. Vassilev (Konovalova and Markevich, 2004), and studied primarily by S.A. Shorokhova, V.A. Krassilov, and later by E.B. Volynets, S.A. Shorokhova, and E.N. Salyukova (Krassilov and Shorokhova, 1973, Volynets, 2008, Volynets and Shorokhova, 2010, Salyukova et al., 2013).

In some localities the phytofossils were found together with brackish water bivalves among which Anodontophora, Modiolus, Meleagrinella, Cardinia, Myophoria, and Palaeopharus indicate the Early Liassic age (by L.D. Kiparisova’s opinion), and the ammonites Franciceras and Caloceras indicating the Hettangian–early Sinemurian age (Konovalova and Markevich, 2004).

Krassilov and Shorokhova (1973) revealed the main taxa of the flora from the Petrovka River Basin including Marattiopsis hoerensis (Shimper) Thomas, Phlebopteris angustiloba (Presl) Hirmer et Hoerhammer, Nilssonia acuminata (Presl) Goеppert, Pterophyllum cf. subaequale Hartz, and considered the age of the flora as the Early Liassic. The fossil-bearing strata mentioned above were outlined by B.I. Vassilev in 1961 as an independent stratigraphic unit, Schitukhe Formation, after the name of the river (Konovalova and Markevich, 2004).

This paper is aiming at the further and detailed study of the Schitukhe flora with its further collections and updated analysis, as well the comparisons with its coeval floras from the adjacent regions, particularly China and Japan.

Section snippets

Materials

The studied Early Jurassic plants of the Schitukhe Formation in southeastern Primorye were collected through the years by Shorokhova (1959–1989) and Krassilov (1968–1969) in the Petrovka and Litovka river basins (Fig. 1). They are represented by the impression of stems, leaves, leafy shoots, cones, cone scales, and separated strobili. These materials have acceptable consistency, and are photographed by the authors with Canon PowerShot G-14 and Canon PowerShot S120, as well as with the help of

Floral composition

The Schitukhe flora is composed of over 50 taxa, mainly as follows: Equisetales – Neocalamites hoerensis (Schimper) Halle, Neocalamites sp., Equisetites muensteri Sternberg, Equisetites sp.; ferns – Marattiopsis hoerensis (Schimper) Thomas, Phlebopteris angustiloba (Presl) Hirmer еt Hoerhammer, Clathropteris elegans Oishi, Dictyophyllum sp., Thaumatopteris elongata Oishi, Thaumatopteris sp., Hausmannia sp., Todites sp., Osmundopsis nipponica Kimura et Tsujii, Coniopteris sp., Cladophlebis

Comparisons with coeval floras of China and Japan

Vakhrameev, 1964, Vakhrameev, 1988 had divided the two Palaeofloristic realms (i.e., the Siberian and Euro-Sinian realms) in Eurasia with the Early Jurassic age. According to this division, the Early Jurassic Schitukhe flora of South Primorye is located in the boundary region between the East Asian Palaeofloristic province of the Euro-Sinian Realm, and the southeastern Siberian Realm in Eurasia. Thus, it is interesting that the Schitukhe flora studied in this paper has both floristic characters

Discussion

A detailed study of the Early Jurassic flora from the Schitukhe Formation in South Primorye, Russia is made by the authors. The flora is composed of over 50 taxa dominated by ferns (Dipteridaceae, Matoniaceae, Marattiaceae, etc.), cycads (Pterophyllum, Nilssonia, Ctenis, Taeniopteris, etc.), and seasonally deciduous conifers (Cycadocarpidium–Podozamites, etc.), Czekanowskiales, and Ginkgoales, showing a mixed flora with floral characters of both the Siberian and Euro-Sinian Palaeofloristic

Conclusion

A detailed study, with newly added materials, of the Early Jurassic flora from the Schitukhe Formation in the Petrovka River Basin of South Primorye, Russia is made by the authors. The flora is composed of over 50 taxa dominated by ferns (Dipteridaceae, Matoniaceae, Marattiaceae, etc.) and conifers (Cycadocarpidiaceae, Pinaceae, etc.), subdominated by cycads (Pterophyllum, Ctenis, Nilssonia, etc.), and accompanied by horsetails (Equisetites, Neocalamites), seed-ferns (Caytonialeans), and

Systematic description of new species

Coniferales
Cycadocarpidiaceae
Cycadocarpidium Nathorst, 1886
Cycadocarpidium pacificum Volynets et Sun n. sp.
(Figs. 8i, 9 k, 10)
Etymology: The specific name comes from the geographical position of the fossil locality on the coastal Pacific Ocean.
Holotype: Sh–5-6-2 (Fig. 10a, d, e).
Paratype: Sh–5-10-2a (Fig. 9k).
Repository: Laboratory of Palaeobotany of Federal Scientific Center of Biodiversity of the East Asian Terrestrial Biota, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Type locality:

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the RFBR Grant No. 17-04-01582 and the NSFC Project No. 41072011 of China. We are grateful to our colleagues who fully supported us and their constructive criticism, as well as to Prof. Chun-Lin Sun and an anonymous reviewer for a number of valuable advices and comments.

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