Czekanowskiales Explained

Czekanowskiales, also known as Leptostrobales, are an extinct group of seed plants. Members of the family are distinguished by persistent leaves borne on deciduous short shoots, subtended by scale-like leaves. The leaves are highly dissected (divided into partitions). They likely grew as trees and shrubs. The main ovulate structure of Czekanowskiales, Leptostrobus, consists of bivalved seed-bearing round capsule-like structures arranged along a long axis.^[1] The fossil record of Czekanowskiales is largely confined to the Northern Hemisphere, and they inhabited warm-temperate and temperate climates under humid conditions.^[2] The oldest possible records of the group are ovulate cones from the Late Permian of Italy,^[3] but the group is primarily known from the Late Triassic onwards, and were abundant during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Only a handful of species are known from the Late Cretaceous, confined to the northern Russian Far East, corresponding to the decline of other seed plant groups during the explosive radiation of flowering plants.^[4] The affinites of Czekanowskiales to other seed plants are obscure. A close relationship to the Ginkgoales has been proposed, based on similar preserved molecular signatures of fossil cuticles,^[5] with some authors placing Ginkgoales and Czekanowskiales into the broader grouping Ginkgophyta.^[6]

Notes and References

Liu . Xiu-Qun . Li . Cheng-Sen . Wang . Yu-Fei . February 2006 . Plants of Leptostrobus Heer (Czekanowskiales) from the Early Cretaceous and Late Triassic of China, with Discussion of the Genus . Journal of Integrative Plant Biology . en . 48 . 2 . 137–147 . 10.1111/j.1744-7909.2006.00137.x . 1672-9072.
Kunzmann. Lutz. Mohr. Barbara A.R.. Bernardes-de-Oliveira. Mary E.C.. December 2007. Novaolindia dubia gen. et sp. nov., an enigmatic seed plant from the Early Cretaceous of northern Gondwana. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. en. 147. 1–4. 94–105. 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2007.06.004.
Kustatscher. Evelyn. Visscher. Henk. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert. Johanna H. A.. 2019-09-01. Did the Czekanowskiales already exist in the late Permian?. PalZ. en. 93. 3. 465–477. 10.1007/s12542-019-00468-9. 1867-6812. free.
2020-12-01. A new species of Phoenicopsis (Leptostrobales) from the Maastrichtian–Danian of Chukotka, Russia. Geobios. en. 63. 67–75. 10.1016/j.geobios.2020.09.002. 0016-6995. Zolina . Anastasia . Golovneva . Lina . Nosova . Natalya . Grabovskiy . Alexander . 228928283 .
Vajda. Vivi. Pucetaite. Milda. McLoughlin. Stephen. Engdahl. Anders. Heimdal. Jimmy. Uvdal. Per. August 2017. Molecular signatures of fossil leaves provide unexpected new evidence for extinct plant relationships. Nature Ecology & Evolution. en. 1. 8. 1093–1099. 10.1038/s41559-017-0224-5. 29046567 . 256703435 . 2397-334X.
Wang . Jing-Jing . Xin . Cun-Lin . Wang . Lu-Han . Zhang . Ya-Mei . Jiao . Zhi-Peng . Di . Guo-Yun . Liu . Song-Xin . 2022-10-03 . Numerical taxonomy of Ginkgophyta fossils in China . Historical Biology . en . 34 . 10 . 2037–2052 . 10.1080/08912963.2021.1999939 . 0891-2963.