Artisophyton chalmersii (GOODLET) Cleal, Christopher J., Strullu-Derrien, Christine & Spencer, Alan R. T., 2024

Artisophyton chalmersii (GOODLET) comb. nov.

1957 Megaphyton chalmersii GOODLET , p. 158, pl. 6.

B a s i o n y m. Megaphyton chalmersii GOODLET, Geol.

Mag., 94, p. 158, pl. 6.

P l a n t F o s s i l N a m e s R e g i s t r y N u m b e r.

PFN003374 for new combination.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Cast of stem 175 mm, long, 50 mm wide; two rows of crescent-shaped leaf scars 24 mm wide, 15 mm wide, distichously arranged on either side of stem, each scar with U-shaped leaf trace.

R e m a r k s. This species was originally assigned to the marattialean fossil-genus Megaphyton ( Goodlet 1957) . However, there is no other evidence of marattialeans in the Limestone Coal Group, and the squatter, crescent-shaped leaf scars are more similar to those of the tedeleacean stems Artisophyton (e.g., Pfefferkorn 1976). Since fronds of the tedeleacean Pecopteris aspera are well documented from the Limestone Coal Group, an attribution of this species to Artisophyton seems more reasonable and so a new combination is proposed here.

O c c u r r e n c e. Between Mynheer Coal and Pittencrieff Blackband Ironstone (Limestone Coal Formation), Elgin Colliery, Fife.