Publication at Faculty of Science |
2015
Abstract
Light microcscopy and laser scanning confocal microscopy were used to investigate a sterile inclusion of a leafy liverwort in a piece of Late Eocene Rovno amber. The fossil is described as Cephaloziella nadezhdae sp. nov.
The tiny liverwort resembles extant species of C. subg. Schizophyllum but differs by its small leaf cells.
Leaf cells with a diameter of ca. 5-8 μm are known from the extant East Asian species C. microphylla; however, this species differs from the fossil in leaf shape and insertion, as well as the presence of acute conical mamillae. Cephaloziella nadezhdae is the first fossil representative of this subcosmopolitan genus.