The sporophyte of the Paleogene liverwort Frullania varians Caspary

We document the sporophyte of the extinct Frullania varians based on an inclusion in Late Oligocene Bitterfeld amber from Germany. The sporophyte consists of a short, ca. 45 µm thick seta that exceeds the perianth only slightly; the elongate-ovate, acute valves of the opened capsule are about 225 µm long, curved backwards and consist of an epidermal and an internal layer. Cell walls of both layers possess nodulose trigones. Several trumpet-shaped, unispiral elaters are fixed to the upper third of the internal valve layer. They have a length of ca. 150 µm and a diameter of 15–18 µm. A subglobose structure of 19 µm diameter is interpreted as a degraded spore. Fossil elaters and spores as well as capsule wall details of Frullaniaceae are described for the first time.doi:10.1002/mmng.20120000

People-Powered Research and Experiential Learning: Unravelling Hidden Biodiversity

Globally, thousands of institutions house nearly three billion scientific collections offering unparallelled resources that contribute to both science and society. For herbaria alone - facilities housing dried plant collections - there are over 3,000 herbaria worldwide with an estimated 350 million specimens that have been collected over the past four centuries. Digitisation has greatly enhanced the use of herbarium data in scientific research, impacting diverse research areas, including biodiversity informatics, global climate change, analyses using next-generation sequencing technologies and many others. Despite the entrance of herbaria into a new era with enhanced scientific, educational and societal relevance, museum specimens remain underused. Natural history museums can enhance learning and engagement in science, particularly for school-age and undergraduate students. Here, we outline a novel approach of a natural history museum using touchscreen technology that formed part of an interactive kiosk in a temporary museum exhibit on biological specimens. We provide some preliminary analysis investigating the efficacy of the tool, based on the Zooniverse platform, in an exhibit environment to engage patrons in the collection of biological data. We conclude there is great potential in using crowd‐sourced science, coupled with online technology to unlock data and information from digital images of natural history specimens themselves. Sixty percent of the records generated by community scientists (citizen scientists) were of high enough quality to be utilised by researchers. All age groups produced valid, high quality data that could be used by researchers, including children (10 and under), teens and adults. Significantly, the paper outlines the implementation of experiential learning through an undergraduate mathematics course that focuses on projects with actual data to gain a deep, practical knowledge of the subject, including observations, the collection of data, analysis and problem solving. We here promote an intergenerational model including children, high school students, undergraduate students, early career scientists and senior scientists, combining experiential learning, museum patrons, researchers and data derived from natural history collections. Natural history museums with their dual remit of education and collections-based research can play a significant role in the field of community engagement and people-powered research. There also remains much to investigate on the use of interactive displays to help learners interpret and appreciate authentic research. We conclude with a brief insight into the next phase of our ongoing people-powered research activities developed and designed by high school students using the Zooniverse platform

Notes on Early Land Plants Today 90. Some technical lectotypifications in liverworts (Marchantiophyta)

Twenty-two names of liverwort and hornwort taxa described from Central America are lectotypified. Most of the taxa have been identified as types earlier but not formally selected. Two taxa are supplementarily lectotypified as the original lectotypification could be applied on more than one specimen

Austral hepaticae 53. unraveling hidden diversity: a novel species of Frullania Raddi from New Zealand

Frullania crassissima J.J.Engel, von Konrat and Glenny, a member of the genus Frullania Raddi, is described and illustrated. It is morphologically most similar to F. setchellii, F. svihlana and F. falciloba, of New Zealand and F. vittiana of Lord Howe Island. The new species is also sister to F. squarrosula, F. nicholsonii, F. vittiana and F. falcilobaina previously published phylogenetic analysis. It shares with those species a falcate asymmetrical leaf lobule that is truncate at its apex. It differs from those species principally in the surface ornamentation of the perianth and leaf cell wall thickenings. It is currently only known from the type material, but is likely to be more widespread

El redescubrimiento de Frullania weberbaueri Steph., incluyendo su primer reporte para Chile, estado de conservación y lectotipificación

We report the finding of a population of Frullania weberbaueri in Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar, Antofagasta Province, Chile. This taxon was previously known only from the type specimen collected by August Weberbauer in Lima in 1901. The new gathering is fertile so we describe here its sexuality and perianths, together with the oil bodies and the habitat used by the species, and we provide a map of its known distribution. A lectotype for the name is here designated. This is the first record of a liverwort for the deserts of northern Chile, and the southernmost record for Frullania sect. Meteoriopsis.Se reporta el hallazgo de una población de Frullania weberbaueri en el Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar, Provincia de Antofagasta, Chile. Este taxón se conocía previamente sólo de la colección tipo realizada por August Weberbauer en Lima en 1901. La nueva colección está fértil, por lo que se describen aquí la sexualidad y los periantos, junto con los cuerpos oleosos y el hábitat utilizado por la especie, y se provee un mapa de su distribución conocida. Se designa un lectotipo para el nombre. Este es el primer registro de una hepática para los desiertos costeros del norte de Chile, y el registro más austral para Frullania sect. Meteoriopsis

World checklist of hornworts and liverworts

A working checklist of accepted taxa worldwide is vital in achieving the goal of developing an online flora of all known plants by 2020 as part of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. We here present the first-ever worldwide checklist for liverworts (Marchantiophyta) and hornworts (Anthocerotophyta) that includes 7486 species in 398 genera representing 92 families from the two phyla. The checklist has far reaching implications and applications, including providing a valuable tool for taxonomists and systematists, analyzing phytogeographic and diversity patterns, aiding in the assessment of floristic and taxonomic knowledge, and identifying geographical gaps in our understanding of the global liverwort and hornwort flora. The checklist is derived from a working data set centralizing nomenclature, taxonomy and geography on a global scale. Prior to this effort a lack of centralization has been a major impediment for the study and analysis of species richness, conservation and systematic research at both regional and global scales. The success of this checklist, initiated in 2008, has been underpinned by its community approach involving taxonomic specialists working towards a consensus on taxonomy, nomenclature and distribution.Copyright Lars Söderström et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCBY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The first anniversary of Phytotaxa in the International Year of Biodiversity.

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Unlocking collections: New records of Lepidoziaceae (Marchantiophyta) for the islands of Fiji

It is clearly evident that the bryophyte flora of the islands of Fiji remains inadequately documented. Here, five liverwort species of Lepidoziaceae are reported as new to the Republic of Fiji: Lepidozia haskarliana, Neolepidozia cuneifolia, N. wallichiana, Telaranea major and Tricholepidozia melanesica

Species delimitation and biogeography of a southern hemisphere liverwort clade, Frullania subgenus Microfrullania (Frullaniaceae, Marchantiophyta)

Frullania subgenus Microfrullania is a clade of ca. 15 liverwort species occurring in Australasia, Malesia, and southern South America. We used combined nuclear and chloroplast sequence data from 265 ingroup accessions to test species circumscriptions and estimate the biogeographic history of the subgenus. With dense infra-specific sampling, we document an important role of long-distance dispersal in establishing phylogeographic patterns of extant species. At deeper time scales, a combination of phylogenetic analyses, divergence time estimation and ancestral range estimation were used to reject vicariance and to document the role of long-distance dispersal in explaining the evolution and biogeography of the clade across the southern Hemisphere. A backbone phylogeny for the subgenus is proposed, providing insight into evolution of morphological patterns and establishing the basis for an improved sectional classification of species within Microfrullania. Several species complexes are identified, the presence of two undescribed but genetically and morphologically distinct species is noted, and previously neglected names are discussed