A new species of <i>Pityostrobus</i> (Pinaceae) from the Cretaceous of California: moving towards understanding the Cretaceous radiation of Pinaceae

<p>The evolutionary history of Pinaceae is documented by numerous fossils, which include a number of anatomically preserved ovulate cones with many systematically informative characters. To date, four extinct genera have been recognized: <i>Pseudoaraucaria</i>, <i>Pityostrobus</i>, <i>Obirastrobus</i> and <i>Eathiestrobus</i>. A new pinaceous cone from the Early Cretaceous of California is described as <i>Pityostrobus pluriresinosa</i> sp. nov., adding to the diversity of known Cretaceous pinaceous cones. Phylogenetic analysis places the new fossil cone in the pinoid clade along with <i>Pinus</i>, <i>Eathiestrobus</i> and numerous species of <i>Pityostrobus</i>. Combined with a non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination, the data reinforce that while <i>Pityostrobus</i> does not represent a natural genus, it likely reflects the rapid evolution of Pinaceae by showing that ovulate cone morphospace was widely occupied by <i>Pityostrobus</i> that has become more restricted in extant genera. Early Cretaceous taxa from Europe and eastern North America show the broadest occupation of morphospace, which then became more restricted to morphologies typical of the pinoid clade in the Late Cretaceous. Taxa from western North America and Asia are more similar to extant genera and occupy a smaller part of the morphospace, highlighting that eastern North America–Europe probably represents an original centre of early diversification for Pinaceae.</p

Supplementary Archive

This archive consists of a single tarball holding a file hierarchy that contains our images, data, and processing scripts. See the associated readme file for more detail

Cissus populnea µCT DTS video

Video of digital µCT tomograms in transverse section through a herbarium fruit of Cissus populnea Guill. & Perr. (K Herbarium sheet collector no. 350

Cissus planchoniana SRXTM DTS video

Video of digital SRXTM tomograms in transverse section through a herbarium fruit of Cissus planchoniana Gilg (K Herbarium sheet collector no. 606

Cissus oreophila SRXTM DTS video

Video of digital SRXTM tomograms in transverse section through a herbarium fruit of Cissus oreophila Gilg & M.Brandt (K Herbarium sheet collector no. 693

Cissus pileata SRXTM DTS video

Video of digital SRXTM tomograms in transverse section through a herbarium fruit of Cissus pileata Desc. (K Herbarium sheet collector no. 18981

Cissus crenulata µCT DTS video

Video of digital µCT tomograms in transverse section through a fossilized seed (the holotype) of Cissus crenulata Adams, Collinson, S.Y. Smith & Bamford comb. nov. (NHMUK specimen V33753

Cissus dasyantha SRXTM DTS video

Video of digital SRXTM tomograms in transverse section through a herbarium fruit of Cissus dasyantha Gilg & M.Brandt (BR Herbarium sheet collector no. 13410

Cissus rondoensis SRXTM DTS video

Video of digital SRXTM tomograms in transverse section through a herbarium fruit of Cissus rondoensis Verdc. (K Herbarium sheet collector no. 523

Cissus integrifolia 2 SRXTM DTS video

Video of digital SRXTM tomograms in transverse section through a herbarium fruit of Cissus integrifolia (Baker) Planch. (K Herbarium sheet collector no. 8517, b