Becklesia maulnyi sp. nov.: A new cycadean species from the Lower Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) of Écommoy (Sarthe, NW France)
Résumé
Plant macrofossil remains of Becklesia Seward 1895 emend.
Watson and Cusack 2005, a rare genus of extinct cycad, have
been known for over a century from Great Britain and Libya. Historically
the genus was poorly characterised leading to many fossil
cycads that resembled Becklesia being placed in other genera including
Cycadites and Paracycas. We describe here a new species,
B. maulnyi sp. nov., from an exceptional and almost complete
cycad specimen housed for two hundred years in the collections of
the Musée Vert of Le Mans. The specimen comprises the apex of
a stem bearing petiolate and pinnate leaves with thin and widely
separated leaflets, which possess two prominent abaxial stomatal
grooves that are characteristic of the genus Becklesia. We reassign
three other French cycad fossils previously described under
different generic names to Becklesia. Finally, we briefly discuss
the geographical and stratigraphical implications of the ge