''Glyptostrobus europaeus'' is an extinct conifer species of the family

Cupressaceae Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress family, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera (17 monotypic), which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdio ...

that is found as

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The sole living species of ''

Glyptostrobus ''Glyptostrobus'' is a small genus of conifers in the family Cupressaceae (formerly in the family Taxodiaceae). The sole living species, ''Glyptostrobus pensilis'', is native to subtropical southeastern China, from Fujian west to southeast Yun ...

'' (''

Glyptostrobus pensilis ''Glyptostrobus pensilis'', known in Chinese as 水松 (Shuǐ sōng), and also Chinese swamp cypress, is an endangered conifer, and the sole living species in the genus '' Glyptostrobus''. Description It is a medium-sized to large tree, reach ...

'') was described from China in 1926.Henry, A. and McIntyre, M. 1926. The swamp cypresses, ''Glyptostrobus'' of China and ''Taxodium'' of America, with notes on allied genera. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy v. 37, sect. B, No. 13, p. 90-116, 8 plates. The name of the genus comes from the Greek "''glypto''" meaning grooved or carved, and "''strobilus''" meaning cone. The species name "''europaeus''" refers to the fact that it was first described from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

History

Fossilized remains of ''Glyptostrobus'' were first described as '' Taxodium europaeus'' by

Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart () FRS FRSE FGS (14 January 1801 – 18 February 1876) was a French botanist. He was the son of the geologist Alexandre Brongniart and grandson of the architect, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Brongniart's pioneeri ...

in 1833 and reassigned to the genus ''Glyptostrobus'' by

Oswald Heer Oswald Heer (or Oswald von Heer) (31 August 1809 – 27 September 1883), Swiss geologist and naturalist, was born at Niederuzwil in Canton of St. Gallen and died in Lausanne. Biography Oswald Heer was educated as a clergyman at Halle and t ...

in 1855. The division of fossil members of the genus into a number of other species is considered by some to rest on "very unreliable criteria". In fact, it has been stated that fossil ''Glyptostrobus'' does not appear to differ significantly from the living species and "it is possible that the tree now on the verge of extinction in China is the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non- avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

species unchanged".

Description

Like living ''Glyptostrobus'', ''G. europaeus'' was

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...

and shed its branchlets seasonally. It bears leaves three types of leaves, cupressoid (scale-like), cryptomeroid (needle-like), and taxodioid (flat and oblong), as well as two transitional types (crypto-cupressoid and crypto-taxodioid).Christophel, D.C. 1976. Fossil floras of the Smoky Tower locality, Alberta, Canada. Palaeontographica, Abteilung B, Band 157, p. 1-43. All are spirally arranged, but some are twisted at the base to lie in two horizontal ranks. The seed-bearing cones are pyriform (

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...

-shaped) and up to 20 mm long and 10 mm wide. They consist of woody

imbricate Aestivation or estivation is the positional arrangement of the parts of a flower within a flower bud before it has opened. Aestivation is also sometimes referred to as praefoliation or prefoliation, but these terms may also mean vernation: the ar ...

(overlapping) scales that are roughly triangular in shape, and are borne terminally on short twigs with scale-like leaves. The seeds are up to 13 mm long and 7 mm wide, winged and triangular to hatchet-shaped. The pollen-bearing cones are small and globose, up to 3 mm long and 3 mm wide. They consist of acute-tipped, incurved, imbricate scales and are borne on short, alternately arranged twigs with scale-like leaves.McIver, E.E. and Basinger, J.F. 1993. Flora of the Ravenscrag Formation (Paleocene), southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana No. 10, 167 p. Geological Association of Canada and Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists.

Age and distribution

Remains of ''Glyptostrobus'' are found in sediments of

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous ( chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pr ...

(

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ag ...

stage) to

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

age in Europe, Greenland, North America and Asia. Throughout the Tertiary period ''Glyptostrobus'' was a major component of northern forests in lowland and swampy areas, where in many places it coexisted with ''

Metasequoia occidentalis ''Metasequoia occidentalis'' is an extinct redwood species of the family Cupressaceae that is found as fossils throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is one of three extinct species of ''Metasequoia'' that are currently recognized as valid.Stock ...

''.LePage, B.A. 2007. The taxonomy and biogeographic history of Glyptostrobus Endlicher (Cupressaceae). Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, v. 48, no. 2, p. 259-426.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16451908 Cupressaceae Prehistoric trees