The type specimen of Nilssoniopteris solitaria (Phillips 1829) Cleal et P.M.Rees 2003 (Bennettitales)
 
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1
Swedish Museum of Natural History, Palaeobiology Department, Box 50007, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
 
2
LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Sentruper Straße 285, 48161 Münster, Germany
 
3
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands, and Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands
 
 
Online publication date: 2017-12-19
 
 
Publication date: 2017-12-19
 
 
Acta Palaeobotanica 2017; 57(2): 177-184
 
ABSTRACT
We identified and located the type specimen of Scolopendrium solitarium, which is the basionym to what for decades was commonly referred to as “Nilssoniopteris vittata” and is now known as Nilssoniopteris solitaria (Phillips) Cleal et P.M.Rees. As Cleal and Rees (2003) never located and studied the type specimen of Scolopendrium solitarium and simply trusted Harris (1969), who included Scolopendrium solitarium in the synonymy of Nilssoniopteris vittata, it remained to be shown that this specimen indeed has bennettitalean affinities. Here we provide results of a cuticular analysis of the material and confirm the bennettitalean nature of Scolopendrium solitarium, and consequently that its placement in Nilssoniopteris solitaria is valid. Nilssoniopteris solitaria is, as a senior synonym of Nilssoniopteris tenuinervis, the type species of Nilssoniopteris. The name “Nilssoniopteris vittata” should no longer be used because it was based on Taeniopteris vittata, which is the conserved type of Taeniopteris, a genus in which taeniopterid fossils are placed if epidermal anatomy is unknown. Specimens id
 
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CITATIONS (4):
1.
Two new species of Nilssoniopteris (Bennettitales) from the Middle Jurassic of Sandaoling, Turpan-Hami Basin, Xinjiang, NW China
Yi Zhao, Shenghui Deng, Ping Shang, Qin Leng, Yuanzheng Lu, Guobin Fu, Xueying Ma
Journal of Paleontology
 
2.
Nilssoniopteris longifolius Chang from the Middle–Late Jurassic of China: Implications for Bennettitales-insect interactions
Xin Wang, Qiaoling Ding, Artai Santos, Torsten Wappler
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
 
3.
An amended species, Nilssoniopteris neimenguensis nom. nov., from the Lower Jurassic of the Xilinhot Basin, Inner Mongolia, northern China, with a reexamination of Nilssoniopteris species
Yi Zhao, Yuanzheng Lu, Ping Shang, Shenghui Deng, Xunlian Wang
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
 
4.
Nitrogen isotopes reveal independent origins of N2-fixing symbiosis in extant cycad lineages
Michael A. Kipp, Eva E. Stüeken, Caroline A. E. Strömberg, William H. Brightly, Victoria M. Arbour, Boglárka Erdei, Robert S. Hill, Kirk R. Johnson, Jiří Kvaček, Jennifer C. McElwain, Ian M. Miller, Miriam Slodownik, Vivi Vajda, Roger Buick
Nature Ecology & Evolution
 
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ISSN:0001-6594
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