Metzgeriites gynothallicus Horcajada-Tejero, Blanco-Moreno et Martín-Abad

Plant Fossil Names Registry Number: PFN003726

Act LSID: urn:lsid:plantfossilnames.org:act:3726

Authors: D. Horcajada-Tejero, C. Blanco-Moreno & H. Martín-Abad

Rank: species

Reference for this name: Horcajada-Tejero, D., Blanco-Moreno, C. & Martín-Abad, H. (2026): When growth form fossilizes: the description of a new liverwort species of the family Metzgeriaceae from the Cretaceous Las Hoyas site, with insights into its architecture and life mode. – Palaeontology 69(4): e70078 (1–16)., link

Page of description: 5

Illustrations or figures: Figs 4, 5

Types

Original diagnosis/description

Prostrate, unistratous, thalloid gametophyte with dichotomizing ribbonlike branches that are less than 1 cm long and 0.2 cm wide and present very variable branching angles. Entire margins and presence of a thin midrib (mean costa/lamina ratioof 0.171 ± 0.079) with elongated conducting cells. Acrogynous sporophyte and vegetative reproduction via branch propagules.

Etymology

Specific epithet combining the roots gyno, from the Greek gyne (gine) meaning woman, referring to the female reproductive structures found on the specimens, which are abundant, and the only reproductive organs found, and thallicus, from the Greek thallós, meaning green shoot, but also informing of its thallose architecture and of the name these liverworts have been unofficially referred to for years, Thallites.

Stratigraphy

Cretaceous, Lower Cretaceous, Barremian

Locality

Spain
Las Hoyas Basin, Cuenca