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Transfer of the Miocene Lejeunea palaeomexicana Grolle to Ceratolejeunea

Gaik Ee LEE, Alfons SCHÄFER-VERWIMP, Alexander R. SCHMIDT & Jochen HEINRICHS

en Cryptogamie, Bryologie 36 (4) - Pages 335-341

Published on 30 October 2015

Lejeunea palaeomexicana was described in 1984 based on an inclusion of a sterile leafy liverwort in a piece of Miocene Mexican amber. A reinvestigation of the type specimen provided evidence for a basal group of ocelli in the leaf lobes. Ocelli are unknown among extant representatives of Lejeunea but occur in several other genera of Lejeuneaceae. Based on the brown colour of the cell walls, the asymmetrical leaf lobes, the two cells wide ventral merophyte and the position of the ocelli, we propose a transfer of Lejeunea palaeomexicana to Ceratolejeunea.


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