48 



PALEOZOIC FOSSIL SPORES 



must always be considered. Nevertheless, 

 the spores recovered by Halle were typi- 

 cal of calamarians (cf. Hartung, 1933) 

 and isolated spores of this character must 

 be classed with Calamospora n. gen. as de- 

 scribed below. Eqiiisetosporites chinleana 

 is quite different and marks the advent 

 of a more distinctly modern character in 

 this ancient and persistent order of plants. 

 Evidently a reduction in importance of 

 haptotypic features has occurred and con- 

 currently the perisporal adaptation repre- 

 sented by elaters has come into existence. 

 Careful study of the fossil spores may be 

 expected to indicate more completely the 

 relationship and distribution of equiseta- 

 lean types. 



The type of the single species of Equi-, 

 setosporites now known has been made 

 available to us for examination through 

 the kindness of Prof. Ralph W. Chaney 

 and the following description, which is 

 somewhat more detailed than Daugher- 

 ty's, is offered for comparison with the 

 other descriptions' given in this paper. 

 This specimen (No. 1562 of the Califor- 

 nia Museum of Paleontology) is ade- 

 quately illustrated by Daugherty in the 

 figure cited below. 



Symmetry. — No trace of original tet- 

 rad configuration visible. 



Shape. — Body spherical (type speci- 

 men elliptical, 30 x 37}^ microns, due to 

 one elongate taper-point fold). 



Ornamentation. — Body wall essentially 

 smooth showing very slight surface un- 

 dulation. 



Spore coat. — Thin, apparently slightly 

 less than a micron in thickness. In spite 

 of this the body is deep brown color as 

 viewed by transmitted light. 



Elaters. — Probably four in number, 

 having their attachment close together; 

 each one possibly about 70 microns long, 

 band-like, about 4 microns wide, with 

 slight irregularities; yellowish translu- 

 cent. Elater ends truncated, tapering for 

 a short distance, not at all broadly ter- 

 minated. (Two of the four free ends 

 are shown at the right edge and over- 

 lapping the spore body in Daugherty's 

 fig. 4.) Evidently the elaters tended to 

 spirally encircle the spore body but they 

 have been displaced on the specimen at 

 hand. 



1. Equisetosporites chinleana Daugherty, 

 1941, Carnegie Inst. Washington Pub. 526, 

 p. 63, pi. 34, fig. 4. Age, Triassic. 



Genus Alisporites Daugherty, 1941 

 Plate 2, figure 12 



This genus, like the preceding, is mono- 

 typic, the sole species yet described being 

 of Triassic age from Southwestern United 

 States. It is included in this paper be- 

 cause spores of Permain age which are 

 probably referable to it have been found, 

 and because there seems some basis for re- 

 lating it to Parasporites and Pityosporites. 

 The only description is that of the geno- 

 type species, A. opii, given below (Dau- 

 gherty 1941, p. 98). 



"The spores are large, averaging 100 to 110 

 microns in length and having two large mem- 

 branaceous wings with reticulate markings. 

 They are spherical to ovate in dorsal view,^i 

 having a rather thick exine and a single fusi- 

 form furrow." 



Pollen grains of Caytoniales, when iso- 

 lated, without much doubt should be clas- 

 sified under Alisporites unless there is 

 particularly good evidence for referring 

 them to Caytonanthus. Harris (1941) 

 has distinguished Caytonanthus kochi, C. 

 oncoides, and C. arberi largely on the ba- 

 sis of differences in their pollen and has 

 suggested their correlation with species 

 of Caytonia and Sagenopteris found in 

 the same deposits. All evidence seems 

 to point to the validity of Harris' con- 

 clusions, yet further information will 

 probably tend to modify the picture. For 

 example, certain of the spores isolated 

 from the Stassfurt salt deposits by Liick 

 (1913) seem properly referable to Alis- 

 porites and similar to spores of Caytonan- 

 thus, but probably few would suggest that 

 the genus Caytonanthus should be iden- 

 tified on that slender basis. The fructifi- 

 cations which bore the Permian Alispo- 

 rites would be presumed to differ generi- 

 cally due to the general tendency of such 

 organs to be evolutionarily plastic and 

 amenable to structural modification. The 

 generic features of pollen grains seem in 

 general to be more conservative. But 

 whether organs are evolutionarily con- 

 servative or amenable to biocharacter al- 



" The terms dorsal and ventral tend to be ambiguous in 

 description of pollen grains, particularly unless some fur- 

 ther explanation is given. Probably "dorsal" as used 

 here refers to the proximal side, i.e., the side which was 

 internal and adjoined the other members of the original 

 tetrad. 



