Rubèn Cunéo

Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio

Abstract There are few studies focused on spore and pollen clumps in paleopalynological samples, and these are only reports from the Northern Hemisphere. These aggregates may be of animal or foral origin. The goal of this contribution is to provide the frst detailed study of spore and pollen clumps from the Southern Hemisphere, and to discuss their...

Agathis (Araucariaceae) is a genus of broadleaved conifers that today inhabits lowland to upper montane rainforests of Australasia and Southeast Asia. A previous report showed that the earliest known fossils of the genus, from the early Paleogene and possibly latest Cretaceous of Patagonian Argentina, host diverse assemblages of insect and fungal a...

The conifer family Cupressaceae encompasses seven subfamilies. Five of them were once considered to conform the family Taxodiaceae, later eliminated because of its paraphyletic nature but remaining as an informal category for early diverging Cupressaceae lineages. Among the taxodiaceous subfamilies, Athrotaxoideae shows a unique morphology in its o...

Leaves are the most abundant and visible plant organ, both in the modern world and the fossil record. Identifying foliage to the correct plant family based on leaf architecture is a fundamental botanical skill that is also critical for isolated fossil leaves, which often, especially in the Cenozoic, represent extinct genera and species from extant...

Today, the ginkgophytes are represented by the single species Ginkgo biloba, naturally distributed in China and cultivated worldwide. However, the ginkgophyte lineage shows an extensive fossil record going back to the Paleozoic of both hemispheres. In South America, its record began in the upper Paleozoic and reached the middle Eocene, and it inclu...

Se presenta una síntesis de las floras reconocidas para la cuenca Tepuel-Genoa en la provincia del Chubut que abarca el lapso Carbonífero inferior - Pérmico inferior. Las mismas provienen en orden creciente, de las Formaciones Jaramillo y Valle Chico, Mojón de Hierro y Río Genoa, ocurriendo a la largo de una pila sedimentaria de más de 5000 m de es...

En la cuenca de Cañadón Asfalto se reconocen cuatro formaciones depositadas durante el Jurásico: Las Leoneras y Lonco Trapial (Sinemuriano - Pliensbachiano), Cañadón Asfalto (Toarciano - Aaleniano?) y Cañadón Calcáreo (Oxfordiano - Kimmeridgiano). Todas ellas preservan restos megaflorísticos a modo de impresiones, compresiones y permineralizaciones...

INTRODUCCIÓN Hacia fines del período Cretácico y comien-zos del Paleógeno, el norte de la Patagonia ha-bía sido ocupado por una transgresión marina de origen Atlántico generando mares someros, epicontinentales, sobre costas recortadas como D.13. MEGAFLORAS DE LAS FORMACIONES LA COLONIA Y LEFIPÁN, CRETÁCICO SUPERIOR DE CHUBUT Rubén CÚNEO, Ana ANDRUC...

The La Colonia Formation is an Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene shallow marine sedimentary unit in Chubut Province (Patagonia), Argentina that preserves important vertebrate and plant fossils. Despite good exposures and significant paleontological investigation, the precise age of the La Colonia Formation and its stratigraphic relationship to the Cret...

We compiled the fossil record of the heterosporous water ferns (Salviniales) including macro- and microfossils from South America and the Antarctic Peninsula. Both extant families, Marsileaceae and Salviniaceae, are well represented and several fossil spore genera that cannot be placed within the extant families are included as Incertae sedis. Mars...

The La Colonia Formation is an Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene shallow marine sedimentary unit in Chubut Province (Patagonia), Argentina that preserves important vertebrate and plant fossils. Despite good exposures and significant paleontological investigation, the precise age of the La Colonia Formation and its stratigraphic relationship to the Cret...

We describe a water fern spore assemblage from the Maastrichtian La Colonia Formation, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The assemblage includes three species of Azolla (A. andreisii sp. nov., A. coloniensis, and A. sp. 1), two species of Azollopsis (A. intermedia and A. tomentosa), Crybelosporites pannuceus, Gabonisporis cristata, Ghoshispora...

The structure and taphonomy of araucarian stumps and logs from the Jurassic of Patagonia are analyzed. Density measurements of these trees indicate that they were organized into woodlands that occupied extensive paleosurfaces affected by repetitive volcanism from nearby areas. At least two episodes of araucarian woodlands were identified, both term...

Many plant genera in the tropical West Pacific are survivors from the paleo-rainforests of Gondwana. For example, the oldest fossils of the Malesian and Australasian conifer Agathis (Araucariaceae) come from the early Paleocene and possibly latest Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina (West Gondwana). However, it is unknown whether dependent ecologica...

Sauropods, the giant long-necked dinosaurs, became the dominant group of large herbivores in terrestrial ecosystems after multiple related lineages became extinct towards the end of the Early Jurassic (190-174 Ma). The causes and precise timing of this key faunal change, as well as the origin of eusauropods (true sauropods), have remained ambiguous...

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) extinction appears to have been geographically heterogeneous for some organismal groups. Southern Hemisphere K/Pg palynological records have shown lower extinction and faster recovery than in the Northern Hemisphere, but no comparable, well-constrained Southern Hemisphere macrofloras spanning this interval had been a...

The reinterpretation has revealed a novel set of characters for understanding the evolution of heterosporous water ferns. The presence of two megaspores in the megasporangium of Paleoazolla exposes serious gaps in the current knowledge on the evolution of monomegaspory in heterosporous water ferns, a fact that emphasizes the need of including fossi...

Premise: Undoubtedly, fossils are critical for understanding evolutionary transformations in deep time. Here, we reinvestigate the microspores and megaspores of Paleoazolla patagonica, a water fern found in Late Cretaceous sediments of the Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina, which provides novel evidence on the past history of the water fern cl...

Denk et al. agree that we reported the first fossil Fagaceae from the Southern Hemisphere. We appreciate their general enthusiasm for our findings, but we reject their critiques, which we find misleading and biased. The new fossils unequivocally belong to Castanopsis, and substantial evidence supports our Southern Route to Asia hypothesis.

The Cretaceous Cerro Barcino Formation (Chubut Group) of Central Patagonia, Argentina has yielded a remarkable fossil vertebrate fauna, which form important components of the South American “mid-Cretaceous” fauna, including titanosauriform sauropod dinosaurs, theropod dinosaurs, crocodyliforms, turtles, and lepidosauromorphs. However, a lack of rob...

Premise of research. A new Early Jurassic species of Cupressaceae is reconstructed from the Cañadón Asfalto Formation in Argentina, based on impressions of foliage and attached and dispersed seed and pollen cones. Methodology. Over 230 specimens were examined using reflected-light microscopy and epifluorescence. Relevant extant taxa were studied f...

Fossil Fagaceae from Patagonia The oak family Fagaceae is thought to have its evolutionary origins in northern temperate forests and Southeast Asia. Wilf et al. now report 52-million-year-old fossils from the Southern Hemisphere belonging to the still-living genus Castanopsis . Hypotheses of Fagaceae origins have focused only on the Northern Hemisp...

Premise of research. Numerous leaf remains of pteridosperms occur at a new locality of the Early Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation, in Patagonia, Argentina. Fossils consist of adpressions with superb cuticular preservation and are herein assigned to Lepidopteris (Peltaspermaceae). Methodology. Fossils were studied using normal light, epifluorescen...

A new genus and species, Austrocupressinoxylon barcinense, based on remains of cupressaceous wood is described for the Lower Cretaceous of central Patagonia, Argentina. The studied specimens are silicified fragments of picnoxylic and homoxylic wood that exhibit a combination of characters not previously reported, therefore a new genus is erected. T...

Macrofossil impressions of caytonialean leaves and micro- and megasporangiate organs from the Early Jurassic Taquetrén locality in Patagonia, Argentina, are described based on more than 300 hand specimens. Leaves of the organ-genus Sagenopteris are described using both discrete and continuous features allowing us to erect the species Sagenopteris t...

We present a comprehensive study about the technical aspects of the application of focused ion beam (FIB) to the study of cuticles and compressions of fossil leaves. The technique allowed us to cross section and image fossil coalified plant remains with a spatial resolution within the 10 nm range, far higher than any other method employed so far. A...

Premise of the Study The fossil record of Agathis historically has been restricted to Australasia. Recently described fossils from the Eocene of Patagonian Argentina showed a broader distribution than found previously, which is reinforced here with a new early Paleocene Agathis species from Patagonia. No previous phylogenetic analyses have include...

An angiospermous wood from the Lower Cretaceous (upper Albian) of the Cerro Barcino Formation, Chubut Group, central Patagonia, Argentina, is described. Its estimated minimum diameter is 40 cm and it is significant as the oldest known angiosperm wood for South America. It has indistinct growth ring boundaries, vessels solitary and in radial multipl...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: We describe a new araucarian species, Araucaria lefipanensis, from the Late Cretaceous flora of the Lefipán Formation, in Patagonia (Argentina) based on reproductive and vegetative remains, with a combination of characters that suggest mosaic evolution in the Araucaria lineage. METHODS: The studied fossils were found at the C...

Little is known about the recovery of terrestrial ecosystems after the end-Cretaceous extinction outside of the Western Interior of North America, relatively close to the 66 Ma bolide impact crater in Chicxulub, Mexico. A previous report showed that in Patagonia, Argentina, insect damage on fossil leaves decreased from the latest Cretaceous to earl...

Transformative Paleobotany: Papers to Commemorate the Life and Legacy of Thomas N. Taylor features wide-ranging coverage that includes the broadest possible spectrum of topics analyzing the structure, function and evolution of fossil plants, microorganisms, and organismal interrelatedness in fossil ecosystems (e.g., plant paleobiography, paleoecolo...

Premise of the Study Equisetum is the sole living representative of Sphenopsida, a clade with impressive species richness, a long fossil history dating back to the Devonian, and obscure relationships with other living pteridophytes. Based on molecular data, the crown group age of Equisetum is mid‐Paleogene, although fossils with possible crown syna...

We present the first study of cuticles and compressions of fossil leaves by Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM). Cavities preserved inside fossil leaf compressions corresponding to substomatal chambers have been observed for the first time and several new features were identified in the cross-section cuts. These results open a n...

Premise of the study: The flip-leaved podocarp Retrophyllum has a disjunct extant distribution in South American and Australasian tropical rainforests and a Gondwanic fossil record since the Eocene. Evolutionary, biogeographic, and paleoecological insights from previously described fossils are limited because they preserve little foliar variation...

Titanosauria was the most diverse and successful lineage of sauropod dinosaurs. This clade had its major radiation during the middle Early Cretaceous and survived up to the end of that period. Among sauropods, this lineage has the most disparate values of body mass, including the smallest and largest sauropods known. Although recent findings have i...

Upper Maastrichtian to lower Paleocene, coarse-grained deposits of the Lefip an Formation in Chubut Province , (Patagonia, Argentina) provide an opportunity to study environmental changes across the Cretaceous–Palaeo-gene (K–Pg) boundary in a shallow marine depositional environment. Marine palynological and organic geochemical analyses were perform...

Background The origin of the Equisetum strobilus has long been debated and the fossil record has played an important role in these discussions. The paradigm underlying these debates has been the perspective of the shoot as node–internode alternation, with sporangiophores attached at nodes. However, fossils historically excluded from these discussio...

Background: The origin of the Equisetum strobilus has long been debated and the fossil record has played an important role in these discussions. The paradigm underlying these debates has been the perspective of the shoot as node-internode alternation, with sporangiophores attached at nodes. However, fossils historically excluded from these discuss...

Shedding light on fossil lantern fruit The Solanaceae (or nightshades) are one of the best-studied plant families, yet their evolutionary origins have thus far been relatively obscure. Corroborative fossil evidence of molecular phylogenetic divergence dates has been lacking. Wilf et al. present 52-million-year-old fossils of lantern fruits from Arg...

The Southern Hemisphere may have provided biodiversity refugia after the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) mass extinction. However, few extinction and recovery studies have been conducted in the terrestrial realm using well-dated macrofossil sites that span the latest Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian) and early Palaeocene (Danian) outside western interio...

The Cañadón Asfalto Basin in Chubut province (Patagonia, Argentina) bears one of the richest Gondwanan Mesozoic biotas. While this formation is famous for its never-ending dinosaur discoveries, it also possesses a rich record of Jurassic floras, with localities from the Early, Middle, and Late Jurassic. The Early to Middle Jurassic “Pomelo” localit...

ABSTRACT The cycads pose classic problems in evolutionary biogeography, owing to their far-flung extant distributions and the sparse fossil records of living genera. A noteworthy example is Tribe Encephalarteae of Family Zamiaceae, today consisting of Encephalartos (Africa) and the Australian genera Lepidozamia and Macrozamia. Numerous petrified t...

New Applications of FIB: a 3D Look into the Past throughout the Ultrastructure of Fossil Plant Cuticles - Volume 22 Issue S4 - A Benedetti, J B Diez, L M Sender, I. Escapa, R. Cúneo

La Cuenca de Cañadón Asfalto, ubicada entre el Macizo Nordpatagónico y laCuenca del Golfo San Jorge, presenta una importante columna de sedimentos jurásicos y cretácicos acumulados en hemigrábenes pertenecientes a un sistema de rift formado durante la fragmentación de Gondwana. La Cuenca de CañadónAsfalto incluye varios depocentros sedimentarios de...

During the warm early Paleogene, a vast trans-Antarctic rainforest stretched across Gondwana. Recently, the first South American and earliest known members of the broadleaved conifer genus Agathis (Araucariaceae) were recognized in early Paleocene (Palacio de los Loros), early and middle Eocene (Laguna del Hunco and Río Pichileufú, respectively), a...

The genus Botrychiopsis consists of leaves with substantial heteromorphism, present in late Paleozoic Gondwanan floras. The genus is recorded in paleofloras from Australia, India, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina, and occurs from the latest Mississippian to the early Permian. Here, we report and analyze the first record of plant-insect interacti...

• Premise of the study: The diverse early Eocene flora from Laguna del Hunco (LH) in Patagonia, Argentina has many nearest living relatives (NLRs) in Australasia but few in South America, indicating the differential survival of an ancient, trans-Antarctic rainforest biome. To better understand this significant biogeographic pattern, we used detaile...

La flora de Taquetrén, en las cercanías de Paso del Sapo (Chubut, Argentina), fue dada a conocer hace cincuenta años por el Dr. Rodolfo Casamiquela, y luego por sucesivos trabajos a partir de la colección original. La edad de esta rica flora fue objeto de debate, ya que ha variado entre el Jurásico Inferior y el Cretácico. El reciente desarrollo de...

Las floras fósiles del Cretácico Superior de Sudamérica sólo han sido ocasionalmente estudiadas en detalle. En los últimos años, estudios pa- leobotánicos de las formaciones La Colonia (Campaniano-Maastrichtiano a Daniano) y Lefipán (Maastrichtiano-Daniano) evidenciaron una diversidad y abundancia previamente desconocida a nivel continental para fl...

We describe Equisetum dimorphum sp. nov. from the Lower Jurassic of Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. This new species is based on fertile and vegetative remains preserved as impressions of stems, leaves, strobili, transversal sections of the stems showing their anatomy, and terminal pagoda-like structures. The fine-grained sedimentary matrix...

Premise of research. The ginkgophytes are an ancient group of gymnosperms with a long history starting during the late Paleozoic and reaching the present with the unique species Ginkgo biloba L. In order to better characterize the early and middle Eocene (ca. 52.2 and 47.7 Ma) leaf species Ginkgo patagonica Berry from northwest Patagonia, Argentina...

La biota continental de la formación Cañadón Asfalto (Toarciano-Aaleniano) ha sido objeto de numerosos estudios, mayormente enfocados en su fauna de vertebrados e invertebrados, así como en su contenido polínico. En contraste, el conocimiento de la megaflora de esta unidad litoestratigráfica es aun limitado, solo conociéndose unas pocas formas pres...

El Grupo Chubut es una unidad litoestratigráfica de origen continental depositada en la cuenca de Somuncurá-Cañadón Asfalto, que está compuesto por dos formaciones: Los Adobes y Cerro Barcino. La información paleontológica deestas unidades es relativamente escasa y se encuentra mayormente confinada a restos de vertebrados. Recientemente, se dio a c...

The Cañadón Asfalto Basin, situated in central Patagonia between the North Patagonian Massif and the Golfo San Jorge Basin (Fig. 1), comprises a thick column of Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments accumulated in several depocenters separated by transference zones of basement blocks, namely the Gastre, Gan Gan, Fossatti, Valle de General Racedo, Gorro...

2014): A new marattiaceous fern from the Lower Jurassic of Patagonia (Argentina): the renaissance of Marattiopsis, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology To link to this article: makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our...

In this contribution, we describe latest Cretaceous aquatic plant communities from the La Colonia Formation, Patagonia, Argentina, based on their taxonomic components and paleoecological attributes. The La Colonia Formation is a geological unit deposited during a Maastrichtian-Danian transgressive episode of the South Atlantic Ocean. This event res...

AGATHIS is an iconic genus of large, ecologically important, and economically valuable conifers that range over lowland to upper montane rainforests from New Zealand to Sumatra. Exploitation of its timber and copal has greatly reduced the genus's numbers. The early fossil record of Agathis comes entirely from Australia, often presumed to be its are...

2014. A Paleogene trans-Antarctic distribution for Ripogonum (Ripogonaceae: Liliales)? Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 17, Issue 3;39A; 9p; palaeo-electronica.org/content/2014/921-early-eocene-ripogonum ABSTRACT An impressive and growing list of biogeographically interesting plant and animal taxa occur in Paleogene sediments of both southern Austra...

In this contribution, we present new paleofloristic elements from the La Colonia Formation (Campanian-Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous), exposed between Telsen and Sierra Rosada in the area known as the North Patagonian Massif, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina. Previously, the paleoflora was only known from some of its aquatic components: pteridophytes r...

Unlabelled: • Premise of the study: The early Eocene Laguna del Hunco caldera-lake paleoflora (ca. 52 Ma) from Chubut Province, Argentina, is notably diverse and includes many conifer and angiosperm lineages that are extinct in South America but extant in Australasian rainforests. No ferns have been previously described from Laguna del Hunco. We...

Herein we report new macrofossils and asso-ciated microfossils representing the aquatic fern family Marsileaceae from the Campanian to Maastrichtian Ca-ñadón del Irupé locality, La Colonia Formation, Chubut Province, Argentina. The macrofossils include compound leaves, detached leaflets, and sporocarps. The venation of the leaflets is consistent wi...

The idea that South America was an island continent over most of the Cenozoic, during which its unusual mammalian faunas evolved in isolation, is outstandingly influential in biogeography. Although large numbers of recent fossil discoveries and related advances require that it be significantly modified, the original isolation concept is still repea...

A new fossil conifer wood —Brachyoxylon currumilii sp. nov.— is described from the Lower—Middle Jurassic of Chubut Province (Argentina). The specimens were collected at a locality where the Cañadón Asfalto Formation is exposed, in the vicinity of the Cerro Cóndor village. The studied wood is characterized by mixed pitting in radial tracheid walls (...

The discovery of 16 cylindrical conifer seed cones at the Estancia Vilán locality in the Late Jurassic Cañadón Calcáreo Formation of Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina, provides anatomically preserved specimens, allowing for the description of a second species of Pararaucaria (Cheirolepidiaceae). The new species, Pararaucaria delfueyoi, is simil...

Premise of research. Fossils representing aquatic ferns with clear affinities to extant Regnellidium (Salviniales, Marsileaceae) are reported for the first time from Upper Cretaceous sediments of the La Colonia Formation, Chubut Province, Argentina. Methodology. Preserved organs including rhizomes bearing roots, compound leaves, and associated puta...

The fluvial, lacustrine and tuffaceous sedimentary succession of the Cañadón Asfalto continental basin exposed in the Argentinean Chubut Province of central Patagonia preserves an extraordinary record of Jurassic fauna and flora that marks key events in the evolution of Dinosauria, early mammals and major South American plant groups. However, basin...

Nearly all data regarding land-plant turnover across the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary come from western North America, relatively close to the Chicxulub, Mexico impact site. Here, we present a palynological analysis of a section in Patagonia that shows a marked fall in diversity and abundance of nearly all plant groups across the K/Pg interval. Mi...