New paper on cycadophytes from Madygen

Moisan, P., S. Voigt, C. Pott, M. Buchwitz, J. Schneider, and H. Kerp. in press. Cycadalean and bennettitalean foliage from the Triassic Madygen Lagerstätte (SW Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. [DOI:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2010.11.008]

Philippe Moisan who is doing his Ph.D. in Münster (with paleobotanist Hans Kerp as his supervisor) studies the flora of the Triassic Madygen Fm. In his first paper on that issue he introduces cycadophyte finds collected between 2005 and 2009.

Many of the studied the specimen come from the same succession and locality as Madygenerpeton (there is also a small sketch of the sedimentary profile, see Fig. 2).

One thing I learned from this study was that so-called "xeromorphic features", i.e. plant features that are usually the consequence of an adaptation to aridity, cannot only occur in xerophytes, i.e. in plants adapted to dry environments, but (for other reasons) in hygrophytic and halophytic plants as well.

Indications for aridity, such as desiccation crack horizons or or seasonally drying-out ponds and rivers or wide-spread red bed sediments are lacking in Madygen. Thus, according to Philippe's interpretation, "xeromorphism" in Madygen plants probably served other purposes than the xeromorphism of xerophytes (e.g. "self-cleaning of the leaf surface, regulation of excessive radiation and leaf temperature, mechanical defense against phytophagous insects").